Look at verse 16: ‘He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.’ The sense here seems to combine on the one hand the discomfort and damage to the teeth when food is mingled with the grit of the ashes in which it was cooked, with, on the other, the picture of the prophet actually himself being smothered in ashes. Either way, it is a highly unpleasant and far from nourishing experience. On the first part of verse 16 Calvin comments, ‘It is a metaphor taken from those who press stones instead of bread under their teeth; for when grit lies hid in bread, it hurts the teeth. Then inward and hidden griefs are said to be like small stones, which break or shatter the teeth.’ The whole verse is a graphic description of acute suffering and shame. And that was precisely the people’s lot.