עַל־כֵּ֭ן אֶמְאַ֣ס וְנִחַ֑מְתִּי עַל־עָפָ֥ר וָאֵֽפֶר׃ (פ)
Sebab itu aku muak dan menyesal di atas debu dan abu.
Malbim
At this point, Job confesses that he had not spoken sense (Job 34:35) in all his arguments. He reveals that throughout the entire debate his mind had not been at one (2Kings 5:26) with the words in his mouth (Psalms 36:4). For in truth, in his heart, he had believed all along in Providence and the immortality of the soul. His whole polemic was just an attempt to find a way to this end through the medium of study and thought: it was all by way of being a search. As the master of the prophets [Moses] had said, Show me Thy Glory. (Exodus 33:18) He too had first investigated this subject by the use of reason and had worked on composing the Book of Job, in which he recorded all his investigations and insights in these matters. But when he saw that no solution could be found by the use of reason, he had asked that God Himself make the glory of His judgments and Governance known to him, as He had to Job,4Carried away by his faithfulness to the rabbinical tradition, namely, that Moses was the author of Job, Malbim is driven into contradiction. If Moses wrote the Book of Job before the Exodus, as Malbim postulates, he must have known the truth concerning the workings of Providence that Job is about to learn from God before the revelation at Mount Sinai and the sin of the golden-calf. Consistency requires that Moses must have been asking for something else when, following these events, he asks of God: 'Show me Thy Glory'.
Alternatively, perhaps Malbim is suggesting that Job and Moses are one, and God's lectures here in the Book of Job were His reply to the request made by Moses, and He showed him... and told him; (Deuteronomy 34:1) and he was then comforted for being dust and ashes (Job 42:6).
Alternatively, perhaps Malbim is suggesting that Job and Moses are one, and God's lectures here in the Book of Job were His reply to the request made by Moses, and He showed him... and told him; (Deuteronomy 34:1) and he was then comforted for being dust and ashes (Job 42:6).
Rabbeinu Bahya
ואנכי עפר ואפר, ”though I am only dust and ashes.” The plain meaning of these words is: “I started out as עפר, “dust,” and I am destined to become אפר, “ash.” This is part of the standard confessional of the righteous. David also used similar phraseology in Psalms 103,14 כי הוא ידע יצרנו זכור כי עפר אנחנו, ”for He knows our various urges; He is mindful that we are dust.” Job 42,6 also made a similar comment על כן אמאס ונחמתי על עפר ואפר, “Therefore I recant and relent, being but dust and ashes.”
Kitzur Ba'al HaTurim
"And I am dust and ashes. From here, [Abraham] merited the ashes of the Red Heifer and the dust of the Sotah (a woman suspected of adultery). 'Dust' in gematria (numerical value) is equal to 'Sotah' with a left Shin (ש), and 'Ashes' in gematria is equal to 'Parah' (Heifer). Dust and ashes. In one context here [Genesis], and in another in the Book of Job. And I will be comforted over dust and ashes. This is greater than what is said in Job than what is said about Abraham."