Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 27:9

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 chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder , the groves and ‖ images shall not stand up .

By this manner of God's dealing with his People.

That the difference between Iacob and his Enemies, in their several Sufferings, may appear.

Heb. expiated or forgiven upon their true Repentance, which shall be the happy effect of their Chastisement.

The effect hereof shall not be to destroy the Sinner, as it is in other Men, but onely to take away the guilt and power of their Sins.

Which Sin of Iacob'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.

Which by an 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 his time, while that Altar stood and was used.

When he shall break all those goodly Altars in pieces, which God by his Law had enjoyned.

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 shew 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 it self by their Zeal in destroying the Instruments of their Idolatry.

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, Deut. 7. 5. & 12. 3.

Shall be thrown down with Contempt and Indignation.

Marginal references: 18.; [illegible: 1+ letters]ma.