Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.
Ver. 6. Wherefore I abhor myself] Aspernor illa, so Tremellius. I utterly dislike those my former base and bald conceits of thee, my hard and unsavoury speeches, mine impatient and imprudent carriages. Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut meus sim, as Bernard expresseth it. Reprobo meipsum, so Brentius; I do utterly reject myself, I condemn mine own folly: I eat those words of discontent at thy righteous proceedings. Digna sane quae per iugulum redeant. Abiecio vitam meam, so Mercer and Lavater render it. I cast away my life, and look upon it as lost, if thou shouldest take the forfeiture: I humbly put myself into the hands of justice, yet in hope of mercy, Displiceo mihimetipsi, ac pervelim ut aliter dixissem ae fecissem (Lavat.).
I repent in dust and ashes] As in an express and public penance. I throw myself here upon the ground, I put my mouth in the dust, Lamentations 3:24 Jeremiah 6:26; Jeremiah 25:34. Canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpi (Virg. Aeneid, l. 12), I sprinkle dust and ashes upon mine head, in token that I have deserved to be as far underground as now I am above ground; I repent my presumptuous misbehaviour with as lowly a spirit as ever I sinned with a high. Lo, this was poenitentiam agere, quod est pro malo bonum reponere, saith Brentius. This was true repentance, to change evil for good; as piety for blasphemy, chastity for fornication, charity for envy, humility for pride, Christ for Satan. And reformation is the best repentance, saith Luther. Such as so repent are sure of comfort. The word here rendered I repent, signifieth also to take comfort, as Ezekiel 32:31. It is repentance unto life, Acts 11:18, and such as accompanieth salvation, Hebrews 6:9. Neither is it wrought in any man but by a saving sight of Almighty God in his greatness and goodness; such as may make him at once to tremble and trust, as Job did here, as Isaiah, Isaiah 6:1; Isaiah 6:5 .