Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust - Biblical Sources

(7) the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

(19) By the sweat of your brow Shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to the ground— For from it you were taken. For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

(19) He regarded me as clay, I have become like dust and ashes.

(20) Both go to the same place; both came from dust and both return to dust.

(19) For in respect of the fate of man and the fate of beast, they have one and the same fate: as the one dies so dies the other, and both have the same lifebreath; man has no superiority over beast, since both amount to nothing. (20) Both go to the same place; both came from dust and both return to dust. (21) Who knows if a man’s lifebreath does rise upward and if a beast’s breath does sink down into the earth? (22) I saw that there is nothing better for man than to enjoy his possessions, since that is his portion. For who can enable him to see what will happen afterward?

(14) Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants.

(12) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron: Hold out your rod and strike the dust of the earth, and it shall turn to lice throughout the land of Egypt.”

(13) And if any Israelite or any stranger who resides among them hunts down an animal or a bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.

(6) Joshua thereupon rent his clothes. He and the elders of Israel lay until evening with their faces to the ground in front of the Ark of the LORD; and they strewed earth on their heads.

(30) They shall raise their voices over you And cry out bitterly; They shall cast dust on their heads And strew ashes on themselves.

(10) Silent sit on the ground The elders of Fair Zion; They have strewn dust on their heads And girded themselves with sackcloth; The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed Their heads to the ground.

(16) my vigor dries up like a shard; my tongue cleaves to my palate; You commit me to the dust of death.

(10) “What is to be gained from my death, from my descent into the Pit? Can dust praise You? Can it declare Your faithfulness?

(27) Abraham spoke up, saying, “Here I venture to speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes:

(5) Is such the fast I desire, A day for men to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush And lying in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast, A day when the LORD is favorable?

(6) When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

(6) Therefore, I recant and relent, Being but dust and ashes.

(1) When Mordecai learned all that had happened, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went through the city, crying out loudly and bitterly, (2) until he came in front of the palace gate; for one could not enter the palace gate wearing sackcloth.— (3) Also, in every province that the king’s command and decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing, and everybody lay in sackcloth and ashes.—

(3) I turned my face to the Lord God, devoting myself to prayer and supplication, in fasting, in sackcloth and ashes.