¹ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

¹ tn The fat mixed with ashes. See note v. 3.

³ tn Heb “it,” referring the “fatty ashes” as a single unit.

⁴ tn Heb “the pouring out [place] of fatty-ash.”

⁶ tn The Hebrew word אַשְׁפַּתּוֹת (ʾashpatot) can also mean “ash heaps.” Though not used as a combination elsewhere, to “embrace ash heaps” might also envision a state of mourning or even dead bodies lying on the ash heaps.

¹ sn The word is literally “its fat,” but sometimes it describes “fatty ashes” (TEV “the greasy ashes”). The fat would run down and mix with the ashes, and this had to be collected and removed.

² tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.

¹ tn Heb “the one who gives snow like wool, frost like ashes he scatters.”

² tn The parallelism of “dust” and “ashes” is fairly frequent in scripture. But “proverbs of ashes” is difficult. The genitive is certainly describing the proverbs; it could be classified as a genitive of apposition, proverbs that are/have become ashes. Ashes represent something that at one time may have been useful, but now has been reduced to what is worthless.

⁴ tn Heb “were spread to many”; KJV, NIV “many (+ people NLT) lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

¹ sn Mourners would sometimes put ashes on their head or roll in ashes as a sign of mourning (see 2 Sam 13:19; Job 2:8; Isa 58:5).

³ sn When lamenting, ancient Israelites would fast, wear sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads to show their sorrow and contrition.

¹ tn Heb “the fat,” i.e., fat mixed with ashes from the altar (HALOT 234 s.v. דשׁן).

² tn Heb “he shall lift up the fatty ashes which the fire shall consume the burnt offering on the altar.”

⁴ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

⁶ sn To clothe oneself in sackcloth and ashes was a public sign of mourning or lament, in this case for past behavior and associated with repentance.

⁶ sn To clothe oneself in sackcloth and ashes was a public sign of mourning or lament, in this case for past behavior and associated with repentance.

³ sn The second colon expresses the consequence of this day-long reducing to ashes—they perish forever! (see 20:7 and 14:20).

² tn The Hiphil stem of כָּפַשׁ (kafash) means “to tread down” or “make someone cower.” It is rendered variously: “trampled me in the dust” (NIV), “covered me with ashes” (KJV, NKJV), “ground me into the dust” (NJPS), “made me cower in ashes” (RSV, NRSV), “rubbed my face in the ground” (TEV), and “rubbed me in the dirt” (CEV).

¹ tc The Greek text has “and he must place the cover upon the altar” instead of “and they must take away the ashes from the altar.” The verb is the Piel form; its nuance seems to be privative, i.e., stating that the object is deprived of the material—the ashes are removed. This is the main altar in the courtyard.