Is "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" in the Bible?
Answered from the commentary of J. N. Darby, The Bible Treasury, A. J. Pollock and 9 others
The words "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" are not quoted as Scripture here; the scripture behind them is God's sentence on fallen Adam in Genesis 3:19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return". That verse speaks of dust, and not of ashes, as one writer stresses by printing it "for dust thou art [not ashes]". The fuller phrase, "Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, in sure and certain hope," appears only as a burial form, used to describe the faith of Abraham's heart when he buried Sarah in hope of resurrection. The same thought of returning to dust is found elsewhere in the Bible. Ecclesiastes 3:20 says "all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again". Ecclesiastes 12:7 says "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it". Psalm 90:3 reads "Thou makest mortal man to return to dust", and Psalm 103:14 says "he remembereth that we are dust".
Where dust and ashes stand together in Scripture, they speak of lowliness, not burial. Abraham called himself "but dust and ashes" before Jehovah (Genesis 18:27). Job said he had become like dust and ashes by God's hand (Job 30:19). At the end of his trial, Job repented "in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Ashes by themselves were a sign of mourning, and being reduced to ashes was a figure of complete destruction. These writers also hold that "dust thou art" was the divine judgment on the body only. They give two grounds for this: the soul and spirit were not taken from the dust, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. So the sentence describes how man's life on earth ends, but not all that man is. For the believer, the body laid in the grave is "sown" like seed, to be raised in incorruption and glory.
Verses: Genesis 3:19, Genesis 18:27, Job 30:19, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Psalms 103:14, Psalms 90:3, Job 34:15, Psalms 104:29, Job 10:9, Job 42:6, Genesis 2:7
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
We end where we began by bringing before you God’s basic law as to the disposal of dead bodies: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, TILL THOU RETURN UNTO THE GROUND: for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art [not ashes], and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19)
Ashes, mostly from burnt wood, were used as a sign of sorrow or mourning, either put on the head, 2 Sam. 13:19, or on the body with sackcloth, Esther 4:1; Jer. 6:26; Lam. 3:16; Matt. 11:21; Luke 10:13; or strewn on a couch on which to lie, Esther 4:3; Isa. 58:5; Jonah 3:6. To eat ashes expresses great sorrow, Ps. 102:9; and to be reduced to them is a figure of complete destruction, Ezek. 28:18; Malachi 4:3; to feed on them tells of the vanities with which the soul may be occupied. Isa. 44:20. 'Dust and ashes' was the figure Abraham used of himself before Jehovah, Gen. 18:27; and Job said he had become like them by the hand of God. Job 30:19. For the ashes of the Red Heifer see HEIFER.
This is the way of faith, when Isaac was demanded.* And the same overcoming faith we trace in the very next scene, the burial of Sarah. This was the same faith, the faith of a dead and risen man, the faith which had already received Isaac and offered Isaac, now buries Sarah. Abraham believed in resurrection, and in God as the God of resurrection, the God who quickens the dead, and calls those things that be not as though they were. The cave of Machpelah tells us this. "Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, in sure and certain hope," was the language of Abraham's heart there. His purchase of that place, with all his care to make it his own, to have it as his possession, while beyond it he cared not for a single acre of the whole land, tells us of his faith in resurrection. His treaty for it with the children of Heth is like his words to his servants at the foot of mount Moriah, "Abide ye here with the ass, while I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Each of these things bespoke beforehand what he knew about his Isaac and his Sarah. He committed each of them into the hands of Him who, as he knew, quickens the dead. The corn of wheat dying, as he knew, was to live again. The handful of sacred dust, as he knew, was to be gathered again. Death itself was eyed in like victory of faith, as had already been eyed the fire, and the wood, and the beloved victim on the altar. Gen. 23.
Small particles of matter found on the ground, out of which man was formed, to whom it was said, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 2:7; Gen. 3:19. "The first man is of the earth, earthy." 1 Cor. 15:47. It is used as a symbol of weakness: "he remembereth that we are dust." Ps. 103:14. To 'lick the dust' is figurative of defeat. Ps. 72:9. To 'cast dust upon the head' was a sign of grief. Ezek. 27:30; Rev. 18:19. To 'shake the dust off the feet' on leaving a city where the servants of Christ had been rejected, was leaving them to judgement: not even the dust of their city should be presented before the messengers' Master. Matt. 10:14; Acts 13:51. Similarly dust was cast or shaken into the air by men in great indignation. Acts 22:23.
Though Abraham knew such liberty in the Lord's presence we find him, like all others who really have to do with God, deeply sensible of his own sin and nothingness. We hear Job saying: "Behold, I am vile;" Isaiah saying: "I am undone;" Peter saying: "I am a sinful man, O Lord;" Paul saying: "I am chief" of sinners. Abraham says, "I am but dust and ashes," and, as far as the Scripture record goes, he heads the list, the first to condemn himself in the presence of God.
Was then Adam's guilt attenuated by his wife's sin? Far from it! On the contrary, the very thing he alleges as an excuse ("the woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat,") God pronounces to be the reason for Adam's judgment, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy" [not for her]" sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
205 Man comes out of the dust, and at death he goes back to dust.
"The preacher" in speaking of death also refers to the two parts of man — the material and the spiritual — when he says, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it" (Eccles. 12:7). Again Elihu refers to the material and the spiritual when speaking of God, he says, "If He set his heart upon man, if He gather to Himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall return again to dust" (Job 34:14-15). This Scripture gives us further light inasmuch as the spirit is linked with the thought of breath, suggesting that the breath of life, in Genesis 2:7, is the spirit of a man.
Let us turn now to what the Bible teaches: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou RETURN unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19)
These were the words of God addressed to Adam, and form part of the sentence He passed upon him for his sin in partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is plainly stated that death is the penalty of sin. It is as plainly stated that just as Adam was created out of the ground, so he is to RETURN unto the ground. God ordained burial in the earth as the way of the disposal of the bodies of the dead. “TILL THOU RETURN UNTO THE GROUND” was and is God’s decree for sinful man. Cremation goes dead against this basic law of God, and THEREBY STANDS CONDEMNED FOR ALL TIME. Let there be no mistake about that.
Gen. 3:19. — "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." It is not merely "thy brow" as generally misquoted. The "face" furnishes a larger and more graphic expression of the fact.
Verses
- Genesis 3:19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return.
- Genesis 18:27And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have ventured to speak unto the Lord; I, who am dust and ashes.
- Job 30:19He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
- Ecclesiastes 3:20All go unto one place all are of the dust, and all return to dust.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it.
- Psalms 103:14For himself knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
- Psalms 90:3Thou makest [mortal] man to return to dust, and sayest, Return, children of men.
- Job 34:15All flesh would expire together, and man would return to the dust.