Those sanctifying themselves and cleansing themselves for the gardens behind one in the center, eating the flesh of the pig and the loathsome thing, even the jumping rodent, they will all together reach their end,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.

Isaiah 66:15-18

6. So how were the Israelites of Isaiah’s day breaking their covenant and befouling themselves?

⁶ In the days when Isaiah wrote those words, over a century before the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 BCE, the Israelites were grossly violating their national covenant with Jehovah, the law covenant mediated by the prophet Moses. They were sanctifying themselves and cleansing themselves for idolatrous worship in special gardens and were breaking God’s laws forbidding them to eat certain things. They defiled themselves and befouled themselves before the God of their covenant and did nothing for his glory.