Job 13 · Verse 12

Job 13:12

Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Job 13:12, King James Version

Job 13:12 in other translations

BSBYour maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
WEBYour memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.
ASVYour memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defences are defences of clay.
YLTYour remembrances are similes of ashes, For high places of clay your heights.
DARBYYour memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your bulwarks are bulwarks of mire.
BBEYour wise sayings are only dust, and your strong places are only earth.
WebsterYour remembrances are like to ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.

What does Job 13:12 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
12. remembrances--"proverbial maxims," so called because well remembered. like unto ashes--or, "parables of ashes"; the image of lightness and nothingness (Is 44:20). bodies--rather, "entrenchments"; those of clay, as opposed to those of stone, are easy to be destroyed; so the proverbs, behind which they entrench themselves, will not shelter them when God shall appear to reprove them for their injustice to Job.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes - Your memorable sayings are proverbs of dust. This is properly the meaning of the original: זכרניכם משלי אפר zichroneycem mishley epher. This he speaks in reference to the ancient and reputedly wise sayings which they had so copiously quoted against him. Your bodies to bodies of clay - This clause is variously translated: Your swelling heaps are swelling heaps of mire. That is, Your high-flown speeches are dark, involved, and incoherent; they are all sound, no sense; great swelling words, either of difficult or no meaning, or of no point as applicable to my case.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 13:1-12

With self-preference, Job declared that he needed not to be taught by them. Those who dispute are tempted to magnify themselves, and lower their brethren, more than is fit. When dismayed or distressed with the fear of wrath, the force of temptation, or the weight of affliction, we should apply to the Physician of our souls, who never rejects any, never prescribes amiss, and never leaves any case uncured. To Him we…

Read the full comment on Job 13:1-12 →

Job 13:12 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

זִֽ֭כְרֹנֵיכֶםZikh.ro.nei.khemmemorials yourH2146
מִשְׁלֵי\־mish.lei-[are] proverbs ofH4912
אֵ֑פֶר'E.ferash[es]H665
לְגַבֵּי\־le.ga.bei-[are] <to> defenses ofH1354
חֹ֝֗מֶרCho.merclayH2563
גַּבֵּיכֶֽם\׃ga.bei.Khemdefenses yourH1354

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 13:12

  • Genesis 18:27

    And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:

  • Exodus 17:14

    And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

  • 2 Corinthians 5:1

    For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

  • Proverbs 10:7

    The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.

  • Psalms 109:15

    Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

  • Genesis 2:7

    And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

  • Job 18:17

    His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

  • Psalms 102:12

    But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

  • Job 4:19

    How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

  • Isaiah 26:14

    They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

  • Psalms 34:16

    The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
remembrances.
18:17; Ex 17:14; Ps 34:16; 102:12; 109:15; Pr 10:7; Isa 26:14
ashes.
Ge 18:27
to bodies.
4:19; Ge 2:7; 2Co 5:1

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 13:11

    Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?

  • Job 13:12

    Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.

  • Job 13:13

    Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.

Read all of Job 13

Job 13:12 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Vuestras memorias serán comparadas á la ceniza, y vuestros cuerpos como cuerpos de lodo.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Vos discours sentencieux sont des proverbes de cendre, vos retranchements sont des défenses de boue.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Eure Denksprüche sind Sprüche von Asche, eure Schutzwehren erweisen sich als Schutzwehren von Lehm.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Memoria vestra comparabitur cineri, et redigentur in lutum cervices vestræ.