Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

He hath cast me into the mire - That is, God has done it. In this book the name of God is often understood where the speaker seems to avoid it, in order that it may not be needlessly repeated. On the meaning of the expression here, see the notes at Job 9:31.

And I am become like dust and ashes - Either in appearance, or I am regarded as being as worthless as the mire of the streets. Rosenmuller supposes it means, “I am more like a mass of inanimate matter than a living man.”

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

He hath cast me into the mire,.... As Jeremiah was literally; here it is to be understood in a figurative sense; not of the mire of sin, into which God casts none, men fall into it of themselves, but of the mire of affliction and calamity; see Psalm 40:2; and which Job here ascribes to God; and whereby he was in as mean, abject, and contemptible a condition, as if he had been thrown into a kennel, and rolled in it; and he speaks of it as an act of God, done with contempt of him, and indignation at him, as he apprehended it. Some Jewish writers^F5Vid. Jarchi & Bar Tzemach in loc. interpret it, "he taught me in the mire", or "it taught me"; his disease, his ulcers taught him to sit down in the mire, or in the midst of ashes, Job 2:8; but though this reading might admit of a good sense, as that Job was taught, as every good man is, many useful lessons in and by afflictions; yet it seems to be a sense foreign from the words:

and I am become like dust and ashes; a phrase by which Abraham expresses his vileness, meanness, and unworthiness in the sight of God, Genesis 18:27; Job, through the force of his disease, looked like a corpse, or one half dead, and was crumbling and dropping into the dust of death and the grave, and looked livid and ash coloured; and even in a literal sense was covered with dust and ashes, when he sat among them, Job 2:8; though here it chiefly respects the miserable, forlorn, and contemptible condition in which he was.

Geneva Study Bible

(n) That is, God has brought me into contempt.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

God is poetically said to do that which the mourner had done to himself (Job 2:8). With lying in the ashes he had become, like them, in dirty color.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Job 30:19 He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

Ver. 19. He hath cast me into the mire] My disease hath, so Vatablus senseth it. Others, God hath as it were trampled me to dirt, thrown me into the kennel, and so done me the greatest disgrace that can be.

And I am become like dust and ashes] Like a dust head behind the door, cadaverosus et semimortuus, saith Mercer; being covered all over (saith Beza) with the scales and scrapings that fall from my scabs; I am become more like unto the unprofitable dust and ashes, than unto a living man. Dust and ashes are not more like one another than their names are in the original; sic κονις, cinis. See Genesis 3:19; Genesis 18:27.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

He hath made me contemptible and filthy, and loathsome for my sores, my whole body being a kind of quagmire, in regard of the filth breaking forth in all its parts;

and I am become like dust and ashes, like one dead and turned to dust; more like a rotten carcass than a living man.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

19.As in Job 9:31. Like dust and ashes — In elephantiasis the skin is at first intensely red, and afterward black.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

I am. Hebrew, "He hat cast me into the mire;" (Protestants) or, "He regards me as dirt; my portion is on the earth and dust." (Haydock) --- All look upon me with horror and contempt. (Calmet)

Mark Dunagan Commentary on the Bible

God had cast him into the mire or the mud, Job felt that God was behind this humiliation.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) He hath cast me into the mire.—He now turns more directly to God, having in Job 30:16 turned from man to his own condition—dust and ashes. This latter phrase is used but three times in Scripture: twice by Job (here and Job 42:6), and once by Abraham (Genesis 18:27).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

cast me

9:31; Psalms 69:1,2; Jeremiah 38:6

dust

2:8; 42:6; Genesis 18:27