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King James Version
Job 13:12
Bible Study Resources
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Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ash;your defenses are made of clay.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your wise sayings are worth no more than ashes, and your arguments are as weak as clay.
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
"Your memorable sayings are [worthless, merely] proverbs of ashes; Your defenses are defenses of [crumbling] clay.
"Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your memories may be compared vnto ashes, and your bodyes to bodyes of clay.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes;Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your wisdom and arguments are as delicate as dust.
Your maxims are garbage-proverbs; your answers crumble like clay.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your bulwarks are bulwarks of mire.
The wise sayings you quote are worthless. Your arguments are as weak as clay.
Remember that your power is from the earth, and your dwelling place is of clay.
Your proverbs are as useless as ashes; your arguments are as weak as clay.
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your remembered sayings are like ashes; surely your backs are backs of clay.
youre remembraunce shalbe like the dust, & youre pryde shalbe turned to claye.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defences are defences of clay.
Your wise sayings are only dust, and your strong places are only earth.
Your memorials shall be like unto ashes, your eminences to eminences of clay.
Your remembrances are like vnto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Your remembraunce is lyke vnto a sparke, and your bodies lyke the claye.
And your glorying shall prove in the end to you like ashes, and your body like a body of clay.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your defences are defences of clay.
Youre mynde schal be comparisound to aische; and youre nollis schulen be dryuun in to clei.
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your remembrances [are] like to ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your platitudes are as valuable as ashes. Your defense is as fragile as a clay pot.
Your wise sayings are sayings of ashes. Your strength is the strength of clay.
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.
Are not your memorable sayings, proverbs of ashes? Breastworks of clay, your breastworks?
Your remembrance shall be compared to ashes, and your necks shall be brought to clay.
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.
Your remembrances [are] similes of ashes, For high places of clay your heights.
"Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
remembrances: Job 18:17, Exodus 17:14, Psalms 34:16, Psalms 102:12, Psalms 109:15, Proverbs 10:7, Isaiah 26:14
ashes: Genesis 18:27
to bodies: Job 4:19, Genesis 2:7, 2 Corinthians 5:1
Reciprocal: Job 33:6 - I also Daniel 4:36 - added
Cross-References
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.
And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Your remembrances [are] like unto ashes,.... Either of things they put Job in remembrance of, the mementos which they had suggested to him; see Job 4:7; or the things which they had brought forth out of their memories, the instances they had given of what had been in the world, the arguments, objections, and reasonings, they had made use of in this controversy; their "memorable sentences" e, as some render it, were of no more moment and importance than ashes, and easily blown away like them; or whatsoever was memorable in them, or they thought would perpetuate their memory hereafter, as their houses and lands, and towns and cities, called by their names, these memorials should perish,
Psalms 49:11; or their wealth and riches, their honour and glory, their learning, wisdom, and knowledge, all should fade, and come to nothing; the memory of the just indeed is blessed, the righteous are had in everlasting remembrance, because of their everlasting righteousness; but as anything else, that may be thought to be a remembrance of man, it is but as ashes, of little worth, gone, and often trampled upon; and men should remember that they are but dust and ashes, as Aben Ezra f observes, even in their best estate, in comparison of the excellency of God, before spoken of; and as Abraham confessed in the presence of God, Genesis 18:27;
your bodies to bodies of clay; that is, are like to bodies of clay, to such as are made of clay after the similitude of human bodies; and such are the bodies of men themselves, they are of the earth, earthly, they are houses of clay, which have their foundation in the dust; earthen vessels, and earthly houses of this tabernacle, poor, mean, frail, brittle things, are crushed before the moth, and much more before the Almighty; the word is by some rendered "eminencies", the most eminent men; what is most eminent in them are like to "eminences of clay" g, or heaps of dirt: some interpret this, as the former expression, of their words, reasonings, arguments, and objections; which though great swelling words, were vain and empty, mere bubbles, and though reckoned strong reasonings, unanswerable arguments, and objections, had no strength in them, but were to be easily thrown down like hillocks of clay; and though thought to be like shields, or high and strong fortresses, as some h take the word to signify, yet are but clayey ones.
e זדוניכם "sententiae vestrae memorabiles", Schultens. f So the Tigurine version, "meminisse oportebat vos similea esse cineri". g לגבי חמר גביכם "eminentiae vestrae, eminentiae luteae", Beza; so Bolducius. h So Cocceius, Beza.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Your remembrances are like unto ashes - There has been a considerable variety in the interpretation of this verse. The meaning in our common version is certainly not very clear. The Vulgate renders it, Memoria vestra comparabitur cineri. The Septuagint, Ἀποβήσεται δὲ ὑμῶν τὸ γαυρίαμα Ἶσα σποδᾷ Apobēsetai de humōn to gauriama isa spodō - “your boasting shall pass away like ashes.” Dr. Good renders it, “Dust are your stored-up sayings.” Noyes, “Your maxims are words of dust.” The word rendered “remembrances” זכרון zı̂krôn means properly “remembrance, memory,” Joshua 4:7; Ezekiel 12:14; then a “memento,” or “record;” then a “memorable saying, a maxim.” This is probably the meaning here; and the reference is to the apothegms or proverbs which they had so profusely uttered, and which they regarded as so profound and worthy of attention, but which Job was disposed to regard as most common-place, and to treat with contempt.
Are like unto ashes - That is, they are valueless. See the notes at Isaiah 44:20. Their maxims had about the same relation to true wisdom which ashes have to substantial and nutritious food. The Hebrew here (אפר משׁלי mâshaly 'êpher) is rather, “are parables of ashes;” - the word משׁל mâshâl meaning similitude, parable, proverb. This interpretation gives more force and beauty to the passage.
Your bodies - - גביכם gabēykem Vulgate, “cervices.” Septuagint, τὸ δὲ σῶμα πήλινον to de sōma pēlinon - but the body is clay. The Hebrew word גב gab, means something gibbous (from where the word “gibbous” is derived), convex, arched; hence, the “back” of animals or human beings, Ezekiel 10:12; the boss of a shield or buckler - the “gibbous,” or exterior convex part - Job 15:26; and then, according to Gesenius, an entrenchment, a fortress, a strong-hold. According to this interpretation, the passage here means, that the arguments behind which they entrenched themselves were like clay. They could not resist an attack made upon them, but would be easily thrown down, like mud walls. Grotius renders it, “Your towers (of defense) are tumult of clay.” Rosenmuller remarks on the verse that the ancients were accustomed to inscribe sentences of valuable historical facts on pillars. If these were engraved on stone, they would be permanent; if on pillars covered with clay, they would soon be obliterated. On a pillar or column at Aleandria, the architect cut his own name at the base deep in the stone. On the plaster or stucco with which the column was covered, he inscribed the name of the person to whose honor it was reared. The consequence was, that that name became soon obliterated; his own then appeared, and was permanent. But the meaning here is rather, that the apothegms and maxims behind which they entrenched themselves were like mud walls, and could not withstand an attack.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 13:12. Your remembrances are like unto ashes — Your memorable sayings are proverbs of dust. This is properly the meaning of the original: זכרניכם משלי אפר zichroneycem mishley epher. This he speaks in reference to the ancient and reputedly wise sayings which they had so copiously quoted against him.
Your bodies to bodies of clay. — This clause is variously translated: Your swelling heaps are swelling heaps of mire. That is, Your high-flown speeches are dark, involved, and incoherent; they are all sound, no sense; great swelling words, either of difficult or no meaning, or of no point as applicable to my case.
