Ezekiel 4:9-17

(C) The Hardships of the Exiles and the Besieged. The horrors of famine, consequent upon the siege, are suggested by the symbolical action of this section, in which the prophet's food and drink are to be carefully measured out about half a pound of food a day and a little over a pint of water. But blended with the thought of the scarcity of food during the siege is the thought of the uncleanness of the food eaten during the exile. According to Hebrew ideas, any food eaten in any land outside of Canaan was necessarily unclean: partly because such a land, not being Yahweh's land, was itself unclean, and partly because no first-fruits would be offered to Him, as He could have no sanctuary there (Hosea 9:3 f.). The uncleanness of exile is suggested by the mongrel combinations (cf. Ezekiel 4:9) which in food, as in dress and other things (cf. Deuteronomy 22:9), seems to have been offensive to Hebrew religious sense; but it is suggested far more drastically by the repulsive accessories of its preparation, which must have been peculiarly offensive to the priestly Ezekiel with his regard for ceremonial propriety. This regard he specially emphasizes before God in a highly significant prayer one of the very few prayers in the book and a special concession is made; but even so, the religious horror of the exile to a sensitive and scrupulous Hebrew is powerfully suggested.