This blunt term for human waste appears in contexts involving ritual purity and prophetic sign-acts. The Torah requires Israelite soldiers to bury their excrement outside the camp to maintain holiness. Ezekiel is commanded to bake bread over burning human dung as a shocking symbol of the defilement Israel would experience in exile (though God mercifully allows him to use cow dung instead). The word's stark realism serves the biblical emphasis on physical purity reflecting spiritual holiness.