Ezekiel 4:14

14 I objected: "No, Adonai ELOHIM! I have never defiled myself - from my youth until now I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was killed by wild animals; no such disgusting food has ever entered my mouth."

Ezekiel 4:14 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 4:14

Then said I, ah, Lord God!
&c.] The interjection "ah" is expressive of sighing and groaning, as Jarchi; or of deprecation, as the Targum, which paraphrases it,

``"and I said", receive my prayer, O Lord God:''

behold, my soul hath not been polluted;
not meaning that his soul had not been polluted with sin, or with an evil thought, as Kimchi interprets it; but by his soul he means the inward part of his body, his stomach and belly; which had not been defiled by taking in meats which were unclean by the law, as follows: for from my youth up, even till now, have I not eaten of that which
dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces;
these were forbidden to be eaten by the law; and such that did were defiled, and obliged to bathing in water, ( Leviticus 17:15 Leviticus 17:16 ) ; and from those the priests more especially were careful to abstain, as Kimchi observes; and such an one was the prophet; see ( Acts 10:14 ) ; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth;
corrupt or, putrefied, or whatsoever was unclean by law, as swine's flesh, or any other. The argument is, that since he had never eaten of anything forbidden by the law of God, he could by no means think of eating that which was abhorrent to nature; as bread baked with men's dung was.

Ezekiel 4:14 In-Context

12 [The bread] you eat is to be baked like barley cakes; you are to bake it before their eyes, using human dung as fuel."

13 ADONAI said, "This is how the people of Isra'el will eat their food - unclean - in the nations where I am driving them."

14 I objected: "No, Adonai ELOHIM! I have never defiled myself - from my youth until now I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was killed by wild animals; no such disgusting food has ever entered my mouth."

15 He answered, "All right, I will give you cow dung to use instead of human dung, and you can prepare your bread on it."

16 He then said to me, "Human being, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Yerushalayim, so that they will anxiously weigh out bread to eat, and, horrified, ration water to drink.