Ezekiel 4:14

14 But I said, "Ah, Lord God , I have never been defiled. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts.^[a] And impure meat has never entered my mouth."^[b]

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 You will eat it as [you would] a barley cake and bake it over dried human excrement in their sight."

13 The Lord said, "This is how the Israelites will eat their bread-ceremonially unclean-among the nations where I will banish them."

14 But I said, "Ah, Lord God , I have never been defiled. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts. And impure meat has never entered my mouth."

15 He replied to me, "Look, I will let you [use] cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that."

16 Then He said to me, "Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread [rationed] by weight and in dread drink water by measure.

Footnotes

• [a] Lv 17:15; 22:8
• [b] Ac 10:14