Hebrews 6:7,8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For the earth which drinketh in the rain, &c. Thus they to whom the gospel is preached, and who believe and embrace it, bring forth the fruits of repentance, faith, and new obedience, and are accepted and blessed by God with further measures of grace, according to Matthew 13:12; Matthew 25:29, where see the notes. But that which beareth thorns and briers Only or chiefly; is rejected No more labour is bestowed upon it; and is nigh unto cursing As in the blessing mentioned in the former verse, there is an allusion to the primitive blessing, whereby the earth was rendered fruitful, Genesis 1:11; so in the curse, here mentioned, there is an allusion to the curse pronounced on the earth after the fall, Genesis 3:17. Whose end is to be burned A principal part of the eastern agriculture consists in leading rills of water from ponds, fountains, and brooks to render the fields fruitful. When this is neglected, the land is scorched by the heat and drought of the climate, and so, being burned up, is altogether sterile. Or, he may refer to the custom of husbandmen's burning up the thorns and briers produced by barren ground. The apostle's meaning is, that as land, which is unfruitful under every method of culture, will at length be deserted by the husbandmen, and burned up with drought; so those that enjoy the means of grace, and yet bring forth nothing but evil tempers, words, and works, must expect to be deprived of the means they enjoy, and exposed to utter ruin. And the apostle particularly referred in these words to the Jewish nation, the generality of whom rejected the gospel, while many others, who had received it, apostatized from it; and who therefore, in a peculiar sense, were exposed to the divine malediction, as was signified by Christ's cursing the barren fig-tree, mentioned Mark 11:13; Mark 11:20. The consequence of which was the burning of their city and temple, and the slaughter of many hundreds of thousands of them shortly after this epistle was written, together with the awful state of spiritual barrenness in which the remnant of them have long lain.