The promise that they shall not remain in the land of the LORD but that Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria announces the exile, the removal of Israel from the land of covenant promise. The eating of unclean food in exile suggests not merely loss of land but loss of covenant purity, that the exile will force Israel to abandon the dietary and ceremonial distinctions that marked them as God's people. This verse announces the exile as the inevitable consequence of covenant violation and the prophetic warnings that Israel has rejected.

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