'Dust' in the Bible

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

Then the Lord God said to the serpent:Because you have done this,you are cursed more than any livestockand more than any wild animal.You will move on your bellyand eat dust all the days of your life.

You will eat bread by the sweat of your browuntil you return to the ground,since you were taken from it.For you are dust,and you will return to dust.”

I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.

Then Abraham answered, “Since I have ventured to speak to the Lord—even though I am dust and ashes—

Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron: Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and it will become gnats throughout the land of Egypt.”

And they did this. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and when he struck the dust of the earth, gnats were on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout the land of Egypt.

It will become fine dust over the entire land of Egypt. It will become festering boils on man and beast throughout the land of Egypt.”

Then the priest is to take holy water in a clay bowl, and take some of the dust from the tabernacle floor and put it in the water.

Who has counted the dust of Jacobor numbered the dust clouds of Israel?Let me die the death of the upright;let the end of my life be like theirs.

I took the sinful calf you had made, burned it up, and crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust. Then I threw it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

The Lord will turn the rain of your land into falling dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

They will be weak from hunger,ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell before the ark of the Lord with his face to the ground until evening, as did the elders of Israel; they all put dust on their heads.

He raises the poor from the dustand lifts the needy from the garbage pile.He seats them with noblemenand gives them a throne of honor.For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s;He has set the world on them.

On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head came from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.

When David came to the summit where he used to worship God, Hushai the Archite was there to meet him with his robe torn and dust on his head.

I pulverize them like dust of the earth;I crush them and trample them like mud in the streets.

“Because I raised you up from the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have caused My people Israel to sin, provoking Me with their sins,

Then Yahweh’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

Then Ben-hadad sent messengers to him and said, “May the gods punish me and do so severely if Samaria’s dust amounts to a handful for each of the people who follow me.”

Jehoahaz did not have an army left, except for 50 horsemen, 10 chariots, and 10,000 foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them, making them like dust at threshing.

He brought out the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. He burned it at the Kidron Valley, beat it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

The king tore down the altars that were on the roof—Ahaz’s upper chamber that the kings of Judah had made—and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. Then he smashed them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.

He even tore down the altar at Bethel and the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made. Then he burned the high place, crushed it to dust, and burned the Asherah.

Lord God, let Your promise to my father David now come true. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he chopped down the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting, wearing sackcloth, and had put dust on their heads.

When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head.

how much more those who dwell in clay houses,whose foundation is in the dust,who are crushed like a moth!

Surely this is the joy of his way of life;yet others will sprout from the dust.

Please remember that You formed me like clay.Will You now return me to dust?

I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;I have buried my strength in the dust.

Will it go down to the gates of Sheol,or will we descend together to the dust?

But I know my living Redeemer,and He will stand on the dust at last.

But they both lie in the dust,and worms cover them.

and consign your gold to the dust,the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis,

Though he piles up silver like dustand heaps up a wardrobe like clay—

He throws me into the mud,and I have become like dust and ashes.

every living thing would perish togetherand mankind would return to the dust.

when the dust hardens like cast metaland the clods of dirt stick together?

Hide them together in the dust;imprison them in the grave.

Therefore I take back my wordsand repent in dust and ashes.

may an enemy pursue and overtake me;may he trample me to the groundand leave my honor in the dust.Selah

I pulverize them like dust before the wind;I trample them like mud in the streets.

My strength is dried up like baked clay;my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.You put me into the dust of death.

All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down;all those who go down to the dustwill kneel before Him—even the one who cannot preserve his life.

“What gain is there in my death,if I go down to the Pit?Will the dust praise You?Will it proclaim Your truth?

For we have sunk down to the dust;our bodies cling to the ground.

May desert tribes kneel before himand his enemies lick the dust.

He rained meat on them like dust,and winged birds like the sand of the seas.

You return mankind to the dust,saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.”

For Your servants take delight in its stonesand favor its dust.

For He knows what we are made of,remembering that we are dust.

When You hide Your face,they are terrified;when You take away their breath,they die and return to the dust.

He raises the poor from the dustand lifts the needy from the garbage pile

ד DaletMy life is down in the dust;give me life through Your word.

All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

and the dust returns to the earth as it once was,and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Go into the rocksand hide in the dustfrom the terror of the Lordand from His majestic splendor.

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes strawand as dry grass shrivels in the flame,so their roots will become like something rottenand their blossoms will blow away like dust,for they have rejectedthe instruction of the Lord of Hosts,and they have despisedthe word of the Holy One of Israel.

Wail, you gates! Cry out, city!Tremble with fear, all Philistia!For a cloud of dust is coming from the north,and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.

The high-walled fortress will be brought down,thrown to the ground, to the dust.

For He has humbled those who live in lofty places—an inaccessible city.He brings it down; He brings it down to the ground;He throws it to the dust.

Your dead will live; their bodies will rise.Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust!For you will be covered with the morning dew,and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.

You will be brought down;you will speak from the ground,and your words will come from low in the dust.Your voice will be like that of a spirit from the ground;your speech will whisper from the dust.

Your many foes will be like fine dust,and many of the ruthless, like blowing chaff.Then suddenly, in an instant,

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his handor marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measureor weighed the mountains in a balanceand the hills in the scales?

Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales;He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

Who has stirred him up from the east?He calls righteousness to his feet.The Lord hands nations over to him,and he subdues kings.He makes them like dust with his sword,like wind-driven stubble with his bow.

“Go down and sit in the dust,Virgin Daughter Babylon.Sit on the ground without a throne,Daughter Chaldea!For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.

Kings will be your foster fathers,and their queens your nursing mothers.They will bow down to youwith their faces to the ground,and lick the dust at your feet.Then you will know that I am Yahweh;those who put their hope in Mewill not be put to shame.

Stand up, shake the dust off yourself!Take your seat, Jerusalem.Remove the bonds from your neck,captive Daughter Zion.”

The wolf and the lamb will feed together,and the lion will eat straw like the ox,but the serpent’s food will be dust!They will not do what is evil or destroyon My entire holy mountain,”says the Lord.

My dear people, dress yourselves in sackclothand roll in the dust.Mourn as you would for an only son,a bitter lament,for suddenly the destroyer will come on us.

Wail, you shepherds, and cry out.Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.Because the days of your slaughter have come,you will fall and become shattered like a precious vase.

י YodThe elders of Daughter Zionsit on the ground in silence.They have thrown dust on their headsand put on sackcloth.The young women of Jerusalemhave bowed their heads to the ground.

ו VavHe ground my teeth on graveland made me cower in the dust.

Let him put his mouth in the dust—perhaps there is still hope.

For the blood she shed is still within her.She put it out on the bare rock;she didn’t pour it on the groundto cover it with dust.

His horses will be so numerous that their dust will cover you. When he enters your gates as an army entering a breached city, your walls will shake from the noise of cavalry, wagons, and chariots.

They raise their voices over youand cry out bitterly.They throw dust on their heads;they roll in ashes.

Many of those who sleep in the dustof the earth will awake,some to eternal life,and some to shame and eternal contempt.

They trample the heads of the pooron the dust of the groundand block the path of the needy.A man and his father have sexual relationswith the same girl,profaning My holy name.

Don’t announce it in Gath,don’t weep at all.Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.

They will lick the dust like a snake;they will come trembling out of their hiding placeslike reptiles slithering on the ground.They will tremble in the presence of Yahweh our God;they will stand in awe of You.

The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished.His path is in the whirlwind and storm,and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

I will bring distress on mankind,and they will walk like the blindbecause they have sinned against the Lord.Their blood will be poured out like dustand their flesh like dung.

Tyre has built herself a fortress;she has heaped up silver like dustand gold like the dirt of the streets.

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that house or town.

If any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

If they do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”

‘We are wiping off as a witness against you even the dust of your town that clings to our feet. Know this for certain: The kingdom of God has come near.’

But they shook the dust off their feet against them and went to Iconium.

As they were yelling and flinging aside their robes and throwing dust into the air,

The first man was from the earthand made of dust;the second man is from heaven.

Like the man made of dust,so are those who are made of dust;like the heavenly man,so are those who are heavenly.

And just as we have bornethe image of the man made of dust,we will also bearthe image of the heavenly man.

They threw dust on their heads and kept crying out, weeping, and mourning:Woe, woe, the great city,where all those who have ships on the seabecame rich from her wealth,for in a single hour she was destroyed.