They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean. "They" - i:e., "men" (Lamentations 4:14), even the very Gentiles, regarded as unclean by the Jews, who were ordered most religiously to avoid all defilements, cried unto the latter, "depart," as being "unclean;" so universal was the defilement of the city by blood.
They ... wandered - as the false prophets and their followers had "wandered, blind" with infatuated and idolatrous crime, in the city (Lamentations 4:14), so they must now 'wander' among the pagan with blind consternation with calamity. They said among the heathen - i:e., the Gentiles said, among the pagan, 'The Jews shall no more sojourn in their own land' (Grotius); or, wheresoever they go in their wandering exile, 'they shall not stay long' (Ludovicus de Dieu). (Deuteronomy 28:65.)
[Pe (p)] `Ayin and Pe are here transposed, as in Lamentations 2:16-17; Lamentations 3:46-51.