Ezekiel 4:14

“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Ezekiel addresses Yahweh immediately after the Lord commands him to bake bread over human excrement and declares that Israel will eat defiled bread in exile. He speaks as a prophet performing a divinely mandated sign-act.

The words — The phrase נַפְשִׁי לֹא מְטֻמָּאָה (naf.shi lo metumma'ah, “my self has not been made unclean”) links the speaker’s own identity directly to ritual purity. This grammatical structure confirms Ezekiel is asserting his personal lifelong cleanliness, not describing the food.

The thread — Peter echoes this exact claim of untouched ritual purity when he refuses unclean food in Acts 10:14. Deuteronomy 14:3 establishes the dietary boundary that makes Ezekiel’s declaration significant.

Why it lands — The text requires a reader to confront the tension between established purity law and a prophetic sign-act that deliberately violates it. It asks for attention to how obedience operates when divine command overrides ritual convention.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

Acts 10:14 “No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
Deuteronomy 14:3 You must not eat any detestable thing.
Ezekiel 9:8 While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord GOD, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?”
Ezekiel 20:49 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, they are saying of me, ‘Is he not just telling parables?’”
Exodus 22:31 You are to be My holy people. You must not eat the meat of a mauled animal found in the field; you are to throw it to the dogs.
Leviticus 17:15 And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean.
Isaiah 65:4 sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs and polluted broth from their bowls.
Jeremiah 1:6 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”
Leviticus 11:39 If an animal that you may eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass will be unclean until evening.
Leviticus 19:7 If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is tainted and will not be accepted.