Hebrews 6:8

that which beareth thorns Rather, "if it bear thorns" (Isaiah 5:6; Proverbs 24:31). This neglected land resembles converts who have fallen away.

rejected The same word, in another metaphor, occurs in Jeremiah 6:30.

nigh unto cursing Lit, "near a curse." Doubtless there is a reference to Genesis 3:18. St Chrysostom sees in this expression a sign of mercy, because he only says "near acurse." "He who has not yetfallen into a curse, but has got nearit, will also be able to get afar from it;" so that we ought, he says, to cut up and burn the thorns, and then we shall be approved. And he might have added that the older "curse" of the land to which he refers, was by God's mercy over-ruled into a blessing.

whose end is to be burned Lit., "whose end is for burning." Comp. Isaiah 44:15, "that it may be for burning." It is probably a mistake to imagine that there is any reference to the supposed advantageof burning the surface of the soil (Virg. Georg. 1. 84 sqq.; Pliny, H. N.xviii. 39, 72), for we find no traces of such a procedure among the Jews. More probably the reference is to land like the Vale of Siddim, or "Burnt Phrygia," or "the Solfatara," like that described in Genesis 19:24; Deuteronomy 29:23. Comp. Hebrews 10:27. And such a land Judea itself became within a very few years of this time, because the Jews would not "break up their fallow ground," but still continued "to sow among thorns." Obviously the "whose" refers to the "land," not to the "curse."