Lamentations 4:15

Study note

Setting — Shouters address fleeing Judean exiles during the siege's aftermath, commanding them to leave because they are ritually defiled. The displaced population flees between cities until foreign nations declare they cannot remain.

The words — The shout repeats ס֣וּרוּ (Su.ru), meaning "depart," alongside טָמֵ֞א (ta.ME'), meaning "unclean." These terms enforce a physical and ritual separation.

The thread — This expulsion echoes Leviticus 13:45, where a diseased person must cry out "Unclean" to mark ritual defilement. The text extends that ceremonial law to describe the national judgment of scattered Israel.

Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that defilement and divine abandonment remove a community from human fellowship and geographical refuge. It presents exile as the direct consequence of ritual and moral corruption.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.