אֵ֫פֶר

Genesis 18:27 וָאֵֽפֶר׃ and ash[es]

Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes—

Here: 'And ash.' What is left after something burns, and the sign of mourning. It rhymes with ʿafar (ʿafar vaʾefer), which makes a memorable pair meaning 'nothing but dirt and cinders'. Said on the brink of Sodom's burning, the word is especially sharp.

Numbers 19:9 אֵ֣פֶר [the] ash[es] of

Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and store them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept by the congregation of Israel for preparing the water of purification; this is for purification from sin.

Numbers 19:10 אֵ֤פֶר [the] ash[es] of

The man who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will be ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner residing among them.

2 Samuel 13:19 אֵ֙פֶר֙ ash[es]

And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying aloud.

Esther 4:1 וָאֵ֑פֶר and ash[es]

When Mordecai learned of all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.

Here: Ash, sprinkled on the head or sat in (2 Sam 13:19; Jon 3:6). It suggests being brought low, close to dust and death.

Esther 4:3 וָאֵ֔פֶר and ash[es]

In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Job 2:8 הָאֵֽפֶר׃ the ash[es]

And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.

Here: Ashes were the classic setting of mourning and self-abasement. With the article ('the ashes') it may point to a known place, likely the ash and refuse heap outside the settlement, where outcasts sat. The ancient Greek and Latin translations understood it that way.

Job 13:12 אֵ֑פֶר ash[es]

Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.

Job 30:19 וָאֵֽפֶר׃ and ash[es]

He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

Job 42:6 וָאֵֽפֶר׃ פ and ash[es]

Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

Here: Ashes, the place where Job sat in mourning (2:8). Paired with "dust," it makes a stock phrase found only here, in Job 30:19 and in Gen 18:27. In both of those places it describes how lowly and mortal a human is.

Psalm 102:9 אֵ֭פֶר ash[es]

For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears

Here: The ashes of mourning, the ones grieving people sat in and threw on their heads. Putting 'ashes' first in the Hebrew stresses the shock: ashes, of all things, are his food.

Psalm 147:16 כָּאֵ֥פֶר like <the> ash[es]

He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;

Isaiah 44:20 אֵ֔פֶר ash[es]

He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Here: The ash left from the same log he burned to bake bread and roast meat (vv. 15–16, 19). It is the leftover of the wood he has just made into a god, and a common Hebrew picture of worthlessness and nothing.

Isaiah 58:5 וָאֵ֙פֶר֙ and ash[es]

Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?

Here: Ash or dust, thrown on the head or sat in during mourning. It went with sackcloth as a fixed pair, signalling ruin and lowliness.

Isaiah 61:3 אֵ֗פֶר ash[es]

to console the mourners in Zion—to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.

Here: Ash put on the head in grief (2 Sam 13:19; Jer 6:26). It is the first visible sign of mourning to be taken away.

Jeremiah 6:26 בָאֵ֔פֶר in <the> ash[es]

O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

Here: 'In the ash'. Ash or ashy dust, the stuff of burned-out hearths. It made the mourner look like a dead thing and put them down at the level of the grave.

Lamentations 3:16 בָּאֵֽפֶר׃ in <the> ash[es]

He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.

Ezekiel 27:30 בָּאֵ֖פֶר in <the> ash[es]

They will raise their voices for you and cry out bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in ashes.

Here: 'In the ash(es)'. It sounds very like 'afar (dust) just before it; the pair 'dust and ashes' is a fixed Hebrew expression for lowliness and mourning (Gen 18:27; Job 30:19; 42:6).

Ezekiel 28:18 לְאֵ֙פֶר֙ into ash[es]

By the multitude of your iniquities and the dishonesty of your trading you have profaned your sanctuaries. So I made fire come from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the eyes of all who saw you.

Here: "Into ash": the remains of burning, and a standard picture of worthlessness and humiliation.

Daniel 9:3 וָאֵֽפֶר׃ and ash[es]

So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Here: Ashes put on the head or sat in, the standard partner of sackcloth in mourning. The mourner makes himself look like what has been burned and destroyed. Here that is Jerusalem, whose 'desolation' Daniel has just read about (v. 2).

Jonah 3:6 הָאֵֽפֶר׃ <the> ash[es]

When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Here: 'The ash.' The word 'the' may point to a known ash-heap, as with Job in Job 2:8. It is the lowest, dirtiest place, the posture of a mourner, of someone condemned, of someone utterly humbled.

Malachi 4:3 אֵ֔פֶר ash[es]

Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Here: What is left after stubble burns (4:1). Ash meant worthlessness, humiliation and mourning. The people who were 'blessed' and 'built up' (3:15) end up as fine powder.