Dust

Dust Storms of sand and dust sometimes overtake Eastern travellers. They are very dreadful, many perishing under them. Jehovah threatens to bring on the land of Israel, as a punishment for forsaking him, a rain of “powder and dust” (Deuteronomy 28=>24). To cast dust on the head was a sign of mourning (Joshua 7=>6); and to sit in dust, of extreme affliction (Isaiah 47=>1). “Dust” is used to denote the grave (Job 7=>21). “To shake off the dust from one’s feet” against another is to renounce all future intercourse with him (Matthew 10=>14; Acts 13=>51). To “lick the dust” is a sign of abject submission (Psalm 72=>9); and to throw dust at one is a sign of abhorrence (2 Samuel 16=>13; comp. Acts 22=>23).