Job 10:9

Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job addresses God directly during a period of intense lament, following his recounting of divine formation in the preceding verse. The words — The Hebrew זְכָר (ze.khor) means "remember," and עָפָר ('a.Far) translates literally to "dust." The thread — The text says the creator fashioned humanity from earth and will return it to earth, a pattern explicit in Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:19, while the clay metaphor reappears in Isaiah 64:8. Why it lands — The text states the speaker questions whether the maker will reverse the forming process and undo his work.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

זְכָר־ze.khor-remember נָ֭אna'please כִּי־ki-that כַחֹ֣מֶרkha./Cho.merlike <the>/ clay עֲשִׂיתָ֑נִי'a.si.Ta./niyou made/ me וְֽאֶל־ve./'el-and/ to עָפָ֥ר'a.Fardust תְּשִׁיבֵֽנִי׃te.shi.Ve./niwill you turn back?/ me

King James Version

Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

Cross-references

Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Ecclesiastes 12:7 before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Psalms 25:6 Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and loving devotion, for they are from age to age.
Isaiah 45:9 Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?
Jeremiah 18:6 “O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
Romans 9:21 Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
Job 7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.
Job 17:14 and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’