Ezekiel 4:14
Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
Ezekiel was a priest and prophet among the captives carried to Babylonia with King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. The verse lies within Ezekiel 4-6.
It is part of a miniature acted portrayal of Jerusalem's siege and its consequences. It belongs to Ezekiel's symbolic actions that typify the awful judgments that awaited the Jews. The passage of Ezekiel 4:12-17 refers to the time of the Babylonian captivity.
Lying a number of days on the left side and then a number of days on the right side, and eating bread by weight and drinking water by measure, and eating defiled bread, represented the food that the children of Israel would eat in their captivity among the Gentiles. The famine diet in the sign represented the famine that would overtake Israel.
The verse records Ezekiel's appeal to God that he had kept himself from ritual defilement by not eating animals that died naturally or were torn by beasts, or other forbidden and unclean flesh. The appeal shows his concern that the commanded food would pollute him, and that he had avoided such defiling food from his youth onward till that time. The defiled bread eaten then was the contempt poured on the captives when their captors in scorn and derision demanded their former joyful songs of praise until the captives were satiated with contempt.