By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this [is] all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
Ver. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged.] Hac re - i.e., deportations in Babyloniam, saith Piscator: "by this," that is, by their being carried captive into Babylon, as it was made a means to bring the elect to repentance. As one poison is antidotary to another, so is affliction to sin. Crosses are leeches to suck out the noxious blood, flails to thresh off our husks, files to brighten our graces, &c. Sanctified afflictions, said Mr Dod, are good promotions. "Corrections of instructions are the way of life," Pro 16:23 For though "not joyous but grievous at present, yet afterwards they yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are thereby exercised." Heb 12:11 It fareth with God's afflicted as it did once with those that had the sweating sickness in this land - if they slept, they died. To keep them waking, therefore, they were smitten with rosemary branches, whereat though they cried out, You kill me! you kill me! yet it proved a happy means to keep them alive. It was good for David that he was afflicted, Psa 119:71 it rid him of those two evil humours, high mindedness and earthly mindedness. Psa 131:1
And this is all the fruit.] God's rod, like Aaron's, blossometh; and, like that of Jonathan, it hath honey at the end of it. A good use and a good issue of afflictions is ever to be prayed for. I read of a gracious man who, lying under great torments of the stone, would often cry out, The use, Lord, the use! And Mr Perkins, in like case, desired his friends to pray to God, not so much for ease of his pain, as for increase of his faith and patience. Perdidisti fructum afflictionum, said Augustine to some in his time, and it was a great loss doubtless.
To take away his sin.] The sin, not the man. See Psalms 99:8. A leprous or ulcerous member a man loves as it is his own flesh, Eph 5:29 though he loatheth the corruption and putrefaction that is in it; therefore he cuts it not off, but plastereth it; whereas a wart or wen lump he cutteth off as not his flesh: so here. a
When he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones.] When he, that is, Jacob, in token of his true repentance, abandoneth all his mawmets (images) and monuments of idolatry, and them abolisheth and demolisheth so as never to be re-edified. The Jews, after the captivity, were so far from idolatry, that they would not admit a painter or carver into their city. And how zealous they were to keep their temple from such defilement, both in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and of the Romans, histories show us.
a Dr Godwyn.