Bible Strands
Hebrews 6:8
But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The author addresses a Christian congregation, using an agricultural metaphor to contrast a warning about barren land with an affirmation of the readers' spiritual vitality in the surrounding verses.
The words — ἀδόκιμος (adokimos) means worthless or rejected, and κατάρας (kataras) denotes a curse or judgment pronounced upon the land.
The thread — This warning about cursed, unproductive earth runs parallel to the ground cursed in Genesis 3:17, the withered branches cast to burn in John 15:6, and the national uprooting described in Deuteronomy 29:28.
Why it lands — The text states that land yielding only thorns is worthless, bears a curse, and faces burning, directly contrasting the blessed land in Hebrews 6:7. It asks the reader to recognize that divine judgment follows barrenness, while the immediate context confirms that God's blessing, not this curse, applies to them.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
- John 15:6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
- Deuteronomy 29:28 The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
- Luke 13:7 So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
- Isaiah 5:1 I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
- Jeremiah 44:22 So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
- Hebrews 10:27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries.
- Hebrews 12:17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could find no ground for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears.
- Genesis 4:11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
- Genesis 5:29 And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the LORD has cursed.”