Job 13:12 - Exposition

Your remembrances are like unto ashes . The "remembrances" intended are probably the wise saws, embodiments of the ancient wisdom, on which Job's adversaries have relied in their disputations with him ( Job 4:7 , Job 4:8 ; Job 8:8-11 , etc.). These Job declares to be mere dust and ashes—useless, worthless, such as the first breath of air wilt blow away. Your bodies to bodies of clay ; rather, your mounds ' or your defences (see the Revised Version). These defences, Job says—i.e , the arguments by which his opponents support their views—are no better than "defences of clay "—easy to batter down and destroy. The ancient defences of a town were usually either of stone, as at Khorsabad, or of crude brick faced with burnt brick, as at Babylon and elsewhere. But Job seems to be speaking of something more primitive than either of these—mere earthworks, like the Roman aggera , hastily thrown up and easy to level with the ground.