Job 13:12

This verse reads,

Your remembrances shall be proverbs of ashes,

Your defences defences of dust.

The term "remembrances" means their traditional sayings, remembered from antiquity, their maxims, such as Bildad adduced, ch. 8, and Eliphaz with his Remember now! ch. Job 4:7; these shall be found to be but ashes, easily dissipated, and not able to resist. The word "defences" is used of the boss of the buckler, ch. Job 15:26, and may refer to some sort of breastwork or cover from which men assailed the enemy. These shall turn out defences of dust, lit clay, i. e. dried clay, which crumbles into dust. "Defences" here are not works for defence strictly but for offence, they are the arguments of the friends; cf. Isaiah 41:21, "strong reasons." These great arguments which the friends used in defence of God against Job shall be found by them, when God searches them out, to be mere ashes and crumbling clay. So it turned out, cf. ch. Job 42:7 seq.