Verse 8
8. Beareth thorns Now, whatever it once bore.
Rejected Reprobate; the word again doubly applicable to soil and soul; reprobate, not by an eternal previous decree, but in consequence of its perverse products.
Nigh unto cursing Not sure of being restored again because it was once fertile. In both the blessing and cursing there seems allusion to the opposite terms in Genesis, Genesis 1:12, contrasting our primeval earth before and after the fall; “God saw that it was good;” and in Hebrews 3:17, “Cursed is the ground… thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth.”
Nigh unto cursing shows the downward course of the apostatizing soul, and its nearness to the fatal result.
End The finality of his earthly career.
To be burned Literally, unto burning; that is, after the career is closed. The terms are again skilfully double-sided, applying alike to soil and soul. Note that it is not the thorns and briers that are burned, for that would improve the soil, but the soil itself. There seems to be an allusion to Deuteronomy 29:23: “The whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning… like the overthrow of Sodom.” And here is a closing period to the strain of most severe rebuke and solemn warning commencing at Hebrews 5:11.
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