They cried unto them, depart ye, [it is] unclean,.... Or, O ye "unclean" e; that is, the people said so to the priests, being polluted with blood; they abhorred them, did not care they should come nigh them, but bid them keep at distance; they that cleansed others of leprosy were treated as leprous persons themselves, and proclaimed unclean, and shunned as such: and, to show their vehement abhorrence of them, repeated the words,
depart, depart, touch not: that is, touch us not; they who had used to say; to others, stand by yourselves, we are more holy than you, being the Lord's priests and prophets, are treated after the same manner themselves:
when they fled away, and wandered; fled from the city, and wandered among the nations; or when they were swiftly carried away captives, and became vagabonds in other countries:
they said among the Heathens, they shall no more sojourn [there]; being among the Heathens, they took notice of them as very wicked men, and said concerning them, now they are carried out of their own land, they shall never return there any more, and dwell in Jerusalem, and officiate in the temple, as they had formerly done.
e טמא "immunde", Montanus; "immundi", Strigelius. "gens polluta", Vatablus; "discedite polluti", Gataker.