ASHES — what is left when something has been burned completely, and the standard material of mourning: Job sits in it, Abraham calls himself 'dust and ashes' (Genesis 18:27, already on these pages), and cities repent in sackcloth and efer. ⚠ At Numbers 19:9-10 it is gathered and stored as the working stock of the purification rite, the one substance in Israel that removes corpse-uncleanness. Not to be confused with afar, dust — a different noun that this same chapter uses eight verses later, and that almost every version on both shelves flattens into 'ashes' too. → first discussed at Num 19:9