And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
double
Or, "but first I will recompense", &c. F6; meaning, before he showed favour to them, and returned their captivity, ( Jeremiah 16:15 ) , he would punish them according to their sins; not double to what they deserved, but to what: they were used to have, or he was used to inflict upon them, punishing them less than their sins deserved; but now he would reward them to the full, though not beyond the measure of justice, yet largely and abundantly, and with rigour and severity. Some understand this of God's gathering together all their sins and iniquities "from the beginning" F7, as they render the word; the sins of their fathers and their own, and punishing them for them all at once; or first their fathers' sins, and then their own, in which they imitated their fathers, and filled up the measure of their iniquity. So the Targum,
``and I will render to the second as to the first, for everyone of both, their iniquities and their sins.''Because they have defiled my land;