When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky.

‘How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
Whose foundation is in the dust,
Who are crushed before the moth!

“For affliction does not come from the dust,
Nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

“Why then do You not pardon my transgression
And take away my iniquity?
For now I will lie down in the dust;
And You will seek me, but I will not be.”

“Behold, this is the joy of His way;
And out of the dust others will spring.

‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay;
And would You turn me into dust again?

Water wears away stones,
Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth;
So You destroy man’s hope.

“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
And thrust my horn in the dust.

“Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together go down into the dust?”

“His bones are full of his youthful vigor,
But it lies down with him in the dust.

“Together they lie down in the dust,
And worms cover them.

And place your gold in the dust,
And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks,

“Though he piles up silver like dust
And prepares garments as plentiful as the clay,

“Iron is taken from the dust,
And copper is smelted from rock.

“Its rocks are the source of sapphires,
And its dust contains gold.

“He has cast me into the mire,
And I have become like dust and ashes.

All flesh would perish together,
And man would return to dust.

When the dust hardens into a mass
And the clods stick together?

For she abandons her eggs to the earth
And warms them in the dust,

“Hide them in the dust together;
Bind them in the hidden place.

Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes.”