Ezekiel 4:13

eat their defiled bread Rather: eat their bread unclean. This is the meaning of the symbol: the food which the people shall eat among the nations will be unclean. In a pathetic passage of Hosea it is said: "they shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim shall eat unclean food in Assyria. They shall not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him; their bread shall be unto them as the bread of mourners, all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of the Lord" (ch. Ezekiel 9:3-4 R.V. marg.). A foreign land was in itself unclean (Amos 7:17), no presence of Jehovah sanctified it; all food eaten in it was also common for it was not hallowed by part of it being brought into the house of the Lord and offered to him. Food eaten among the heathen was as the bread of mourners in Israel, all who partook of it were polluted. But as the words of the prophet suggest (Ezekiel 4:14) in addition to this general uncleanness the people were forced in their straits or induced to eat many things actually prohibited by the Law, such as that which died of itself or was torn by wild beasts (ch. Ezekiel 44:31; Leviticus 17:15; Deuteronomy 14:21. Comp. Isaiah 65:4). And it is natural that in the sore famine during the siege such unclean food was eaten, as indeed more terrible practices prevailed (ch. Ezekiel 5:10). Ezekiel 4:13 appears in a shorter form in LXX., but there is no reason to regard the whole verse as a gloss.