Then will I visit their transgression with the rod - They shall be punished, though my mercy shall not be wholly taken from them. God has two objects in his dealings with his backsliding and offending people;
(a) one is to show his displeasure at their conduct, or to punish them;
(b) the other is to reclaim them.
All who have been truly converted, or who are truly his people, will be recovered though they fall into sin; but it may be done, and will be likely to be done, in such a way as to show his own displeasure at their offences.
And their iniquity with stripes - The word rendercd stripes means properly a stroke, a blow; then, judgments or calamities such as God sends on mankind as a punishment for their sins. Genesis 12:17; Exodus 11:1; Psalm 38:11.

Then will I visit their transgression with the rod,.... That is, of men; as in 2-Samuel 7:14, the Lord making use of men to chastise his people by, as he did of the neighbouring nations of the Jews, when they sinned against him; and so the Targum interprets it here,
"I will visit their transgressions by the hands of the tribes of the ungodly;''
or with such afflictions as are common to men, 1-Corinthians 10:13, in a kind, humane, moderate way, in measure, in judgment, and not in wrath and hot displeasure; or in such like manner as a man chastises his children, which is in love, Deuteronomy 8:5.
and their iniquity with stripes; such as diseases of body, loss of relations, crosses and disappointments in the world; not with the stripes of divine vengeance, of vindictive justice, such as Christ, the surety of his people, endured for them; but with the scourges of a father, Isaiah 53:8.