For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Ver. 10. After their own pleasure] To ease their stomachs, vent their choler, discharge themselves of that displeasure they have (and perhaps without cause) conceived against us. Not so the Lord; "Fury is not in me," saith he, Isaiah 27:4. Though God may do with his own as he pleaseth, yet he doth never over do. For it goes as much against the heart with him, as against the hair with us; it is even a pain to him to be punishing,Lamentations 3:33 .
That we might be partakers] Thus bitter pills bring sweet health, and sharp winter kills worms and weeds, and mellows the earth for better bearing of fruits and flowers. The lily is sowed in its own tears, and God's vines bear the better for bleeding. The walnut tree is most fruitful when most beaten, and camomile the more you tread it, the more you spread it. Aloes kill worms, and stained clothes are whitened by bleeching.