For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and produces a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God;
Parallel translations
- KJV For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
- BSB For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God.
- NKJV For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
- NASB For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;
- NLT When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Land that drinks the rain and yields a useful crop receives God's blessing. Genuine spiritual life bears fruit and is blessed by God.
Overview
The writer illustrates his warning with an agricultural image: ground that absorbs rain and produces a beneficial harvest is blessed. This pictures the person who responds to God's grace with genuine fruitfulness. It sets up the contrast in the next verse between fruitful and worthless ground.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Hos 10:12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.
- Isa 44:3For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring:
- Ps 65:9–13You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it.
- Isa 55:10–13For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
- Ps 126:6He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.
- Joel 2:21–26Land, don’t be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things.
- Ps 24:5He shall receive a blessing from Yahweh, righteousness from the God of his salvation.
- Jas 5:7Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.
- Lev 25:21then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years.
- Ezek 34:26I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.
- Ps 104:11–13They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
- Mal 3:10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough for.
- Gen 27:27He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.
- Deut 28:11–12Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 6:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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