or ashes, cast on the head was a sign of mourning, Josh. vii, 6:
sitting in the dust, a sign of affliction, Lam. iii, 29; Isaiah xlvii,
1. The dust also denotes the grave, Gen. iii, 19; Job vii, 21; Psalm
xxii, 15. It is put for a great multitude, Gen. xiii, 16; Numbers xxiii,
10. It signifies a low or mean condition, 1 Sam. ii, 8; Nahum iii, 18.
To shake or wipe off the dust of a place from one’s feet, marks the
renouncing of all intercourse with it in future. God threatens the Jews
with rain of dust, &c; Deut. xxviii, 24. An extract from Sir T. Roe’s
embassy may cast light on this: “Sometimes, in India, the wind blows
very high in hot and dry seasons, raising up into the air a very great
height, thick clouds of dust and sand. These dry showers most grievously
annoy all those among whom they fall; enough to smite them all with
present blindness; filling their eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouths too,
if not well guarded; searching every place, as well within as without,
so that there is not a little key-hole of any trunk or cabinet, if it be
not covered, but receives this dust; add to this, that the fields,
brooks, and gardens, suffer extremely from these terrible showers.”
2. In almost every part of Asia, those who demand justice against a
criminal throw dust upon him, signifying that he deserves to lose his
life, and be cast into the grave; and that this is the true
interpretation of the action, is evident from an imprecation in common
use among the Turks and Persians, “Be covered with earth!” “Earth be
upon thy head.” We have two remarkable instances of casting dust
recorded in Scripture: the first is that of Shimei, who gave vent to his
secret hostility to David, when he fled before his rebellious son, by
throwing stones at him, and casting dust, 2 Sam. xvi, 13. It was an
ancient custom, in those warm and arid countries, to lay the dust before
a person of distinction, and particularly before kings and princes, by
sprinkling the ground with water. To throw dust into the air while a
person was passing, was therefore an act of great disrespect; to do so
before a sovereign prince, an indecent outrage. But it is clear that
Shimei meant more than disrespect and outrage to an afflicted king,
whose subject he was: he intended to signify by that action, that David
was unfit to live, and that the time was at last arrived to offer him a
sacrifice to the ambition and vengeance of the house of Saul. This view
of his conduct is confirmed by the behaviour of the Jews to the Apostle
Paul, when they seized him in the temple, and had nearly succeeded in
putting him to death: they cried out, “Away with such a fellow from the
earth, for it is not fit that he should live; and as they cried out and
cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air, the chief captain
commanded him to be brought into the castle,” Acts xxii, 23. A great
similarity appears between the conduct of the Jews on this occasion, and
the behaviour of the peasants in Persia, when they go to court to
complain of the governors, whose oppressions they can no longer endure.
They carry their complaints against their governors by companies,
consisting of several hundreds, and sometimes of a thousand; they repair
to that gate of the palace nearest to which their prince is most likely
to be, where they set themselves to make the most horrid cries, tearing
their garments, and throwing dust into the air, and demanding justice.
The king, upon hearing these cries, sends to know the occasion of them:
the people deliver their complaints in writing, upon which he informs
them that he will commit the cognizance of the affair to such a one as
he names; and in consequence of this, justice is usually obtained.
sitting in the dust, a sign of affliction, Lam. iii, 29; Isaiah xlvii,
1. The dust also denotes the grave, Gen. iii, 19; Job vii, 21; Psalm
xxii, 15. It is put for a great multitude, Gen. xiii, 16; Numbers xxiii,
10. It signifies a low or mean condition, 1 Sam. ii, 8; Nahum iii, 18.
To shake or wipe off the dust of a place from one’s feet, marks the
renouncing of all intercourse with it in future. God threatens the Jews
with rain of dust, &c; Deut. xxviii, 24. An extract from Sir T. Roe’s
embassy may cast light on this: “Sometimes, in India, the wind blows
very high in hot and dry seasons, raising up into the air a very great
height, thick clouds of dust and sand. These dry showers most grievously
annoy all those among whom they fall; enough to smite them all with
present blindness; filling their eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouths too,
if not well guarded; searching every place, as well within as without,
so that there is not a little key-hole of any trunk or cabinet, if it be
not covered, but receives this dust; add to this, that the fields,
brooks, and gardens, suffer extremely from these terrible showers.”
2. In almost every part of Asia, those who demand justice against a
criminal throw dust upon him, signifying that he deserves to lose his
life, and be cast into the grave; and that this is the true
interpretation of the action, is evident from an imprecation in common
use among the Turks and Persians, “Be covered with earth!” “Earth be
upon thy head.” We have two remarkable instances of casting dust
recorded in Scripture: the first is that of Shimei, who gave vent to his
secret hostility to David, when he fled before his rebellious son, by
throwing stones at him, and casting dust, 2 Sam. xvi, 13. It was an
ancient custom, in those warm and arid countries, to lay the dust before
a person of distinction, and particularly before kings and princes, by
sprinkling the ground with water. To throw dust into the air while a
person was passing, was therefore an act of great disrespect; to do so
before a sovereign prince, an indecent outrage. But it is clear that
Shimei meant more than disrespect and outrage to an afflicted king,
whose subject he was: he intended to signify by that action, that David
was unfit to live, and that the time was at last arrived to offer him a
sacrifice to the ambition and vengeance of the house of Saul. This view
of his conduct is confirmed by the behaviour of the Jews to the Apostle
Paul, when they seized him in the temple, and had nearly succeeded in
putting him to death: they cried out, “Away with such a fellow from the
earth, for it is not fit that he should live; and as they cried out and
cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air, the chief captain
commanded him to be brought into the castle,” Acts xxii, 23. A great
similarity appears between the conduct of the Jews on this occasion, and
the behaviour of the peasants in Persia, when they go to court to
complain of the governors, whose oppressions they can no longer endure.
They carry their complaints against their governors by companies,
consisting of several hundreds, and sometimes of a thousand; they repair
to that gate of the palace nearest to which their prince is most likely
to be, where they set themselves to make the most horrid cries, tearing
their garments, and throwing dust into the air, and demanding justice.
The king, upon hearing these cries, sends to know the occasion of them:
the people deliver their complaints in writing, upon which he informs
them that he will commit the cognizance of the affair to such a one as
he names; and in consequence of this, justice is usually obtained.