Text: Lamentations 4:15
OT Text Referred to: Isaiah 52:11-12
Subject: "Depart!" cries of uncleanness and departure
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Lamentations 4:15 uses the cry סוּרוּ (suru, "Go away! Depart!") directed at bloodstained priests and prophets who are treated as ritually unclean lepers, with the command "Do not touch!" Isaiah 52:11 reverses the same imperative: סוּרוּ סוּרוּ (suru suru, "Depart, depart!") now commands the exiles to leave Babylon and "touch no unclean thing." In Lamentations, Israel's leaders are the ones driven away as unclean; in Isaiah, the purified remnant is commanded to depart from unclean Babylon. The shared vocabulary of departure and untouchability creates a dramatic reversal from shameful expulsion to glorious exodus.