the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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THE MESSAGE
Hebrews 6:8
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But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned.
But that which beareth thornes and briers, is reiected, and is nigh vnto cursing, whose end is to be burned.
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
Other people are like land that grows thorns and weeds and is worthless. It is about to be cursed by God and will be destroyed by fire.
but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is unfit and close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
But land that produces only thornbushes is worthless. It is likely to fall under God's curse, and in the end it will be set on fire.
but if it keeps producing thorns and thistles , it fails the test and is close to being cursed ; in the end, it will be burned.
but bringing forth thorns and briars, it is found worthless and nigh to a curse, whose end [is] to be burned.
But other people are like land that grows only thorns and weeds. It is worthless and in danger of being cursed by God. It will be destroyed by fire.
But that which beareth thornes and briars, is reproued, and is neere vnto cursing, whose end is to be burned.
But if it should produce thorns and briers it is rejected and not far from being condemned; and at the end this crop will be used for fuel.
But if it grows thorns and weeds, it is worth nothing; it is in danger of being cursed by God and will be destroyed by fire.
But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to a curse, whose end is for burning.
"but bearing thorns and thistles," it is deemed unfit and near a curse, of which the end is for burning.) Gen. 3:17, 18
but if it persistently produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.
But if it sends up thorns and evil plants, it is of no use and is ready to be cursed; its only end is to be burned.
but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near a curse, whose end is to be burned.
However, if it continues to produce thorns and thistles, it is worthless and in danger of being cursed, and in the end will be burned.Isaiah 5:6;">[xr]
but that which shall produce thorns and briers hath reprobation; nor is it far from the curse, but its end is burning.
But if it should put forth thorns and briers, it would have reprobation, and be not far from a curse, and its end would be a burning.
But that grounde whiche beareth thornes and bryers, is reproued, and is nye vnto cursyng, whose ende is to be burned.
but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.
but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near a curse, whose end is to be burned.
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and nigh unto a curse, whose end is to be burned.
But if it only yields a mass of thorns and briers, it is considered worthless, and is in danger of being cursed, and in the end will be destroyed by fire.
But that that is bringinge forth thornes and breris, is repreuable, and next to curs, whos endyng schal be in to brennyng.
but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near to a curse; whose end is to be burned.
But that which beareth thorns and briers [is] rejected, and [is] nigh to cursing; whose end [is] to be burned.
But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned.
but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.
But if it gives nothing but weeds, it is worth nothing. It will be hated and destroyed by fire.
But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.
But, should it be bringing forth thorns and briars, it is disapproved, and, unto cursing, nigh, - whose end is for burning.
But that which bringeth forth thorns and briers is reprobate and very near unto a curse: whose end is to be burnt.
But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned.
But that grounde which beareth thornes and bryars is reproved and is nye vnto cursynge: whose ende is to be burned.
and that which is bearing thorns and briers [is] disapproved of, and nigh to cursing, whose end [is] for burning;
But yt grounde which beareth thornes and thistles, is nothinge worth, and nye vnto cursynge: whose ende is to be brent.
but that which bears thorns and briars, is look'd upon as lying under a curse; whose end will be to be burnt.
But if a herd does nothing except eat and take all the good without giving anything back, the rancher will send 'em all to the sale.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
beareth: Hebrews 12:17, Genesis 3:17, Genesis 3:18, Genesis 4:11, Genesis 5:29, Deuteronomy 29:28, Job 31:40, Psalms 107:34, Isaiah 5:1-7, Jeremiah 17:6, Jeremiah 44:22, Mark 11:14, Mark 11:21, Luke 13:7-9
whose: Hebrews 10:27, Isaiah 27:10, Isaiah 27:11, Ezekiel 15:2-7, Ezekiel 20:47, Malachi 4:1, Matthew 3:10, Matthew 7:19, Matthew 25:41, John 15:6, Revelation 20:15
Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 23:7 - and they shall Job 38:26 - on the wilderness Proverbs 24:31 - it Isaiah 7:23 - be for briers Isaiah 9:18 - it shall Isaiah 27:4 - who would Ezekiel 15:4 - it is cast Micah 7:4 - General Malachi 4:6 - and smite Matthew 21:19 - Let Matthew 25:30 - cast Mark 4:19 - unfruitful Mark 11:20 - General Luke 3:8 - fruits Luke 8:7 - thorns Luke 13:9 - if not Luke 23:31 - General John 15:2 - branch Romans 6:21 - for the 2 Corinthians 13:5 - reprobates 1 Thessalonians 2:16 - for
Cross-References
"I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
God sticks by all who love him, but it's all over for those who don't.
A good person basks in the delight of God , and he wants nothing to do with devious schemers.
This is the way God put it: "They found grace out in the desert, these people who survived the killing. Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!" God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel. You'll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance. You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides, And sit back and enjoy the fruit— oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests! The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim: ‘On your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God !'"
If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.
The Loyal Minority Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that! So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer? God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me! And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish. It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago.
But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I'm not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven't I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn't amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it. So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it's all the same: We spoke God's truth and you entrusted your lives.
God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
But that which beareth thorns and briers,.... To which wicked men answer; who are unfruitful and unprofitable, and are hurtful, pricking and grieving, by their wicked lives and conversations, by their bitter and reproachful words, and by their violent and cruel persecutions; and particularly carnal professors, and especially apostates, such as before described; for to such earth, professors of religion may be compared, who are worldly, slothful, defrauding and overreaching, carnal and wanton; as also heretical men, and such as turn from the faith, deny it, and persecute the saints: and the things or actions produced by them are aptly expressed by "thorns and briers"; such as errors, heresies, and evil works of all kinds; and which show that the seed of the word was never sown in their hearts, and that that which they bear, or throw out, is natural to them: and such earth is
rejected; as such men are, both by the church, and by God himself; or "reprobate", as they are concerning the faith, and to every good work; and are given up by God to a reprobate mind: and is "nigh unto cursing"; and such men are cursed already by the law, being under its sentence of curse and condemnation; and are nigh to the execution of it; referring either to the destruction of Jerusalem, which was near at hand; or to the final judgment, when they shall hear, Go, ye cursed:
whose end is to be burned; with everlasting and unquenchable fire, in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected - That is, by the farmer or owner. It is abandoned as worthless. The force of the comparison here is, that God would thus deal with those who professed to be renewed if they should be like such a worthless field.
And is nigh unto cursing - Is given over to execration, or is abandoned as useless. The word “cursing” means devoting to destruction. The sense is not that the owner would curse it “in words,” or imprecate a curse on it, as a man does who uses profane language, but the language is taken here from the more common use of the word “curse” - as meaning to devote to destruction. So the land would be regarded by the farmer. It would be valueless, and would be given up to be overrun with fire.
Whose end is to be burned - Referring to the land. The allusion here is to the common practice among the Oriental and Roman agriculturists of burning bad and barren lands. An illustration of this is afforded by Pliny. “There are some who burn the stubble on the field, chiefly upon the authority of Virgil; the principal reason for which is, that they may burn the seeds of weeds;” Nat. Hist. xviii. 30. The authority of Virgil, to which Pliny refers, may be found in Georg. i. 84:
“Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros,
Atque levem stipulam ciepitantibus urere flammis.”
“It is often useful to set fire to barren lands, and burn the light stubble in crackling flames.” The purpose of burning land in this way was to render it available for useful purposes; or to destroy noxious weeds, and thorns, and underbrush. But the object of the apostle requires him to refer merely to the “fact” of the burning, and to make use of it as an illustration of an act of punishment. So, Paul says, it would be in the dealings of God with his people. If after all attempts to secure holy living, and to keep them in the paths of salvation, they should evince none of the spirit of piety, all that could be done would be to abandon them to destruction as such a field is overrun with fire. It is not supposed that a true Christian will fall away and be lost, but we may remark.
(1) That there are many professed Christians who seem to be in danger of such ruin. They resist all attempts to produce in them the fruits of good living as really as some pieces of ground do to secure a harvest. Corrupt desires, pride, envy, uncharitableness, covetousness, and vanity are as certainly seen in their lives as thorns and briars are on a bad soil. Such briars and thorns you may cut down again and again; you may strike the plow deep and seem to tear away all their roots; you may sow the ground with the choicest grain, but soon the briars and the thorns will again appear, and be as troublesome as ever. No pains will subdue them, or secure a harvest. So with many a professed Christian. He may be taught, admonished, rebuked, and afflicted, but all will not do. There is essential and unsubdued perverseness in his soul, and despite all the attempts to make him a holy man, the same bad passions are continually breaking out anew.
(2) Such professing Christians are “nigh unto cursing.” They are about to be abandoned forever. Unsanctified and wicked in their hearts, there is nothing else which can be done for them, and they must be lost. What a thought! A professing Christian “nigh unto cursing!” A man, the efforts for, whose salvation are about to cease forever, and who is to he given over as incorrigible and hopeless! For such a man - in the church or out of it - we should have compassion. We have some compassion for an ox which is so stubborn that he will not work - and which is to be put to death; for a horse which is so fractious that he cannot be broken, and which is to be killed; for cattle which are so unruly that they cannot be restrained, and which are only to be fattened for the slaughter; and even for a field which is desolate and barren, and which is given up to be overrun with briars and thorns; but how much more should we pity a man all the efforts for whose salvation fail, and who is soon to be abandoned to everlasting destruction!
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Hebrews 6:8. That which beareth thorns and briers is rejected — That is: The land which, notwithstanding the most careful cultivation, receiving also in due times the early and latter rain, produces nothing but thorns and briers, or noxious weeds of different kinds, is rejected, αδοκιμος, is given up as unimprovable; its briers, thorns, and brushwood burnt down; and then left to be pastured on by the beasts of the field. This seems to be the custom in husbandry to which the apostle alludes. The nature of the case prevents us from supposing that he alludes to the custom of pushing and burning, in order to farther fertilization. This practice has been common from very early times: -
Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros;
Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flammis.
VIRG. Geor. i., 5:84.
Long practice has a sure improvement found,
With kindled fires to burn the barren ground;
When the light stubble to the flames resign'd,
Is driven along, and crackles in the wind.
DRYDEN.
But this, I say the circumstances of the case prevent us from supposing to be intended.
Is nigh unto cursing — It is acknowledged, almost on all hands, that this epistle was written before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. This verse is in my opinion a proof of it, and here I suppose the apostle refers to that approaching destruction; and perhaps he has this all along in view, but speaks of it covertly, that he might not give offence.
There is a good sense in which all these things may be applied to the Jews at large, who were favoured by our Lord's ministry and miracles. They were enlightened by his preaching; tasted of the benefits of the heavenly gift-the Christian religion established among them; saw many of their children and relatives made partakers of the Holy Ghost; tasted the good word of God, by the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham; and saw the almighty power of God exerted, in working a great variety of miracles. Yet, after being convinced that never man spake as this man, and that none could do those miracles which he did, except God were with him; after having followed him in thousands, for three years, while he preached to them the Gospel of the kingdom of God; they fell away from all this, crucified him who, even in his sufferings as well as his resurrection, was demonstrated by miracles to be the Son of God; and then to vindicate their unparalleled wickedness, endeavoured to make him a public example, by reproaches and blasphemies. Therefore their state, which had received much moral cultivation from Moses, the prophets, Christ, and his apostles; and now bore nothing but the most vicious fruits, pride, unbelief, hardness of heart, contempt of God's word and ordinances, blasphemy, and rebellion; was rejected-reprobated, of God; was nigh unto cursing-about to be cast off from the Divine protection; and their city and temple were shortly to be burnt up by the Roman armies. Thus the apostle, under the case of individuals, points out the destruction that was to come upon this people in general, and which actually took place about seven years after the writing of this epistle! And this appears to be the very subject which the apostle has in view in the parallel solemn passages, Hebrews 10:26-31; and, viewed in this light, much of their obscurity and difficulty vanishes away.
