Luke 15:15-19

15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. 17 But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’

To understand this part of the prodigal son parable of Jesus is telling it to , you have to know  who and what they are taught and believe, Luke chapter 15 is called the lost and found chapter of  Jesus parables and His telling them to Jewish priest;

Luke 15:2 Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

The Pharisee pictured the wayward son as a young Jewish man that went off to faraway land where pigs were raised and kept to be sold or eaten. Times had to be hard for a Jew to work with pigs and even more desperate for the pods or husk the pigs eat to be seen as something good enough for the Hebrew boy to eat. The Hebrew Bible states several times pigs are unclean and not edible for a child of God to eat, basically a totally detestable animal.  God says that eating a pig is like eating mice and those people will come to an end.

Isaiah 66:17 “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens, Following one in the center, Who eat swine’s flesh,  detestable things and mice, will come to an end altogether,”  declares the Lord.

When the wayward son saw the pods  of the pigs as tasty food it was the pinnacle point in to him, that say life was way more better in his father’s presence rather than living his life his way. Carob plants that pod grow in the Mediterranean,  are often used as animal feed, and in times of famine ,as “the last source of [human] food in hard times”. The wayward son  knew he went too far, his life was now detestable. He said to himself it is time to go back home, and if I end up as one of father’s servants, it is better than a vagabond. God bless you all, the Lord Jesus loves you and so do I. Samuel H

Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.