Isaiah 27:9

By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged,.... Or "expiated", or "atoned" (a); not that afflictions are atonements for sin, or give satisfaction to divine justice for it; but they are

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

By this, by this manner of God’ s dealing with his people, therefore, that the difference between Jacob and his enemies in their several sufferings may appear, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, Heb. expiated or forgiven upon their true repentance, which shall be the happy effect of their chastisement. This is all the fruit to take away his sin; the effect hereof shall not be to destroy the sinner, as it is in other men, but only to take away the guilt and power of their sins. When he maketh; which sin of Jacob’ s shall be purged and taken away, and the judgment removed, when he shall truly repent of all his sins, and especially of his idolatry, to which they were most inclined, and for which the most of God’ s judgments which they had hitherto felt had been inflicted upon them. The altar; which by a usual enallage may be put for the altars, to wit, their idolatrous altars, as is evident from the following words. Possibly he may say the altar with respect to that particular altar which Ahaz had set up in the place of God’ s own altar; and this prophecy might be delivered either to the prophet, or by him to the people, in Ahaz’ s time, while that altar stood and was used. As chalk stones; when he shall break all those goodly altars in pieces, which God by his law had enjoined. That are beaten in sunder; which kind of stones are of themselves apt to break into small pieces, and by the artificer are broken into smaller pieces for making mortar. He seems to allude to that fact of Moses, who, to show his detestation of idolatry, took the golden calf, and burnt it, and ground it to powder; and intimates, that when their repentance should be sincere, it would discover itself by their zeal in destroying the instruments of their idolatry. The groves; which were frequently erected to the honour of idols, of which we have many instances in Scripture, which God therefore commanded his people to destroy, 12:3. Shall not stand up; shall be thrown down with contempt and indignation.

Isaiah 27:9 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," For though "not joyous but grievous at present, yet afterwards they yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are thereby exercised." 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, it rid him of those two evil humours, high mindedness and earthly mindedness. 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, 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 he cutteth off as not his flesh: so here. 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. Dr Godwyn.

(9) By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged.—The pronoun may refer either to the chastisement of the previous verse as the instrument of purification (preferably), or to the destruction of idols which follows as the result and proof of that purification, the end contemplated by Jehovah in His chastisements. This is all the fruit to take away his sin.—Better, of taking away his sin. The words repeat the thought of the previous clause. The fruit of repentance and forgiveness will be found in rooting out all vestiges of idol-worship. The LXX., “when I shall take away their sins,” is quoted by St. Paul in Romans 11:27. The groves and images.—Literally, as elsewhere, the Asherahs, or the sun-images, the two leading features of the cultus which Israel had borrowed from the Phœnicians. In the action of Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:3-4) we may, with little doubt, trace a conscious endeavour to fulfil the condition which Isaiah had thus proclaimed. He sought to “purge” Judah and Jerusalem from the “groves and the carved (sun) images, and molten images.”

Verse 9. The groves - "And if the groves"] ולא velo. Four MSS., two ancient, of Kennicott's, and one ancient of my own, with the Septuagint; this makes a fuller sense.

9. The condition of restoration and forgiveness. Therefore points back to the idea of Isa 27:7—the moderation of Israel’s punishment,—while By this, i.e. (“on this condition”) points forward to the end of the verse, the removal of idolatrous emblems. be purged] be expiated (R.V. marg.). and this is all … sin] Better: and this is the whole fruit of the taking away of his sin. “Fruit” seems here to mean contemplated or expected issue,—“the aim.” when he maketh all the stones of the altar] Rather, that he should make all altar-stones, &c. the groves and images, &c.] or, the Asherim and sun-pillars (see on Isaiah 17:8) shall not remain standing.

By this - This verse states the whole design of the punishment of the Jews.

9. By this — By this sending away to Babylon. Purged — Of idolatrous tendencies forever. The fruit to take away his sin — The object or overruling purpose of the captivity.