Leviticus 19:23 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 19:23
And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of.
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
land
הָאָ֗רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
planted
וּנְטַעְתֶּם֙u.ne.ta'.Tem
H5193
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
trees
עֵ֣ץ'etz
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine singular construct
food
מַאֲכָ֔לma.'a.Khal
H3978
an eatable (includ. provender · noun, common masculine singular absolute
count
וַעֲרַלְתֶּ֥םva.'a.ral.Tem
H6188
to expose or remove the prepuce · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
fruit
פִּרְי֑וֹpir.Yo
H6529
fruit (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
uncircumcised
עָרֵלʻârêl
H6188
to expose or remove the prepuce
three
שָׁלֹ֣שׁsha.Losh
H7969
three · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
years
שָׁנִ֗יםsha.Nim
H8141
a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
uncircumcised
עֲרֵלִ֖ים'a.re.Lim
H6189
uncircumcised (i.e. still having the prepuce uncurtaile… · adjective, masculine plural absolute
eaten
יֵאָכֵֽלye.'a.Khel
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 22:27 When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth…
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Jeremiah 9:25-26 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
Exodus 6:12 And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am o…
Exodus 22:29-30 Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
Leviticus 12:3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Leviticus 14:34 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of you…
Jeremiah 6:10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word o…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 19:19-29
Here is, I. A law against mixtures, Lev 19:19. God in the beginning made the cattle after their kind (Gen 1:25), and we must acquiesce in the order of nature God hath established, believing that is best and sufficient, and not covet monsters. Add thou not unto his works, lest he reprove thee; for it is the excellency of the work of God that nothing can, without making it worse, be either put to it or taken from it, Ecc 3:14. As what God has joined we must not separate, so what he has separated we must not join. The sowing of mingled corn and the wearing of linsey-woolsey garments are forbidden, either as superstitious customs of the heathen or to intimate how careful they should be not to mi…
ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised; three years . . . it shall not be eaten of--"The wisdom of this law is very striking. Every gardener will teach us not to let fruit trees bear in their earliest years, but to pluck off the blossoms: and for this reason, that they will thus thrive the better, and bear more abundantly afterwards. The very expression, 'to regard them as uncircumcised,' suggests the propriety of pinching them off; I do not say cutting them off, because it is generally the hand, and not a knife, that is employed in this operation" [MICHAELIS].
Adam Clarke on Leviticus 19:23
Three years shall it be as uncircumcised - I see no great reason to seek for mystical meanings in this prohibition. The fruit of a young tree cannot be good; for not having arrived at a state of maturity, the juices cannot be sufficiently elaborated to produce fruit excellent in its kind. The Israelites are commanded not to eat of the fruit of a tree till the fifth year after its planting: in the three first years the fruit is unwholesome; in the fourth year the fruit is holy, it belongs to God, and should be consecrated to him, Lev 19:24; and in the fifth year and afterward the fruit may be employed for common use, Lev 19:25.
John Gill on Leviticus 19:23
And when ye shall come into the land,.... The land of Canaan, whither they were now going:
and shall have planted all manner of trees for food; such that brought forth fruit that was eatable, as figs, grapes, olives, &c. so that all such trees as did not bear fruit fit for man's food came not under the following law; nor such as grew up of themselves and were not planted; nor such as were planted for any other use than for fruit; nor such as were planted by the Canaanites before the Israelites came into their land; for so say the Jews, what were planted for an hedge or for timber are free from the law; and add, at the time our fathers came into the land, what they found planted was free, wh…
The Church Fathers
Fruitbearing trees are works that bring forth virtues. We circumcise trees when we are suspicious of how weak our first efforts are and do not approve of the first fruits of our work. We call the fruit that grows unclean and do not take it as our food. When the first fruits of good works are praised, it is proper that this fruit should not feed the soul of the worker. Otherwise the praise we receive is plucked, and the fruit of our work is eaten out of season. So one who receives praise from a human mouth for a virtue just undertaken eats the fruit of a tree he has planted before its time. Truth said this through the psalmist: "It is vain for you to rise before dawn; rise up after you have sat down." To rise before dawn is to rejoice in the night of this present life, before the clear light of eternal rewards appears. We should first sit down and then rise up rightly, because whoever does not willingly humble himself now will not be exalted in the glory to come.
Fruitbearing trees are works that bring forth virtues. We circumcise trees when we are suspicious of how weak our first efforts are and do not approve of the first fruits of our work. We call the fruit that grows unclean and do not take it as our food. When the first fruits of good works are praised, it is proper that this fruit should not feed the soul of the worker. Otherwise the praise we receive is plucked, and the fruit of our work is eaten out of season. So one who receives praise from a human mouth for a virtue just undertaken eats the fruit of a tree he has planted before its time. Truth said this through the psalmist: "It is vain for you to rise before dawn; rise up after you have sat down." To rise before dawn is to rejoice in the night of this present life, before the clear light of eternal rewards appears. We should first sit down and then rise up rightly, because whoever does not willingly humble himself now will not be exalted in the glory to come. Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Leviticus
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Circumcision — Cutting around. This rite, practised before, as some think, by divers races, was appointed by God to be the special badge of his chosen people, an abiding sign of their consecration to him. It was…
First-fruits — The first-fruits of the ground were offered unto God just as the first-born of man and animals. The law required, (1.) That on the morrow after the Passover Sabbath a sheaf of new corn should be…
Agriculture · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
First Fruits, The · Different kinds of: Fruit of new trees in fourth year — Different kinds of: Fruit of new trees in fourth year
Horticulture · Encouraged — Encouraged
Trees · Planted by man — Planted by man
Vineyards · Laws respecting: The fruit of new, not to be eaten for three years — Laws respecting: The fruit of new, not to be eaten for three years
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Leviticus 19:20-22
20. And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bond-maid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged: they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
20. Vir si coierit cum muliere coitu seminis quae fuerit ancilla desponsata viro, nec redimendo redempta fuerit, nec fuerit manumissa, vapulatio erit: non morientur, quia non est libertate donata.
21. And he shall bring his trespass-offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass-offering.
21. Adducet autem oblationem, pro delicto suo Jehovae ad ostium tabernaculi conventionis, arietem pro delicto…
The words, "Ye shall keep My statutes," open the second series of commandments, which make it a duty on the part of the people of God to keep the physical and moral order of the world sacred. This series begins in Lev 19:19 with the commandment not to mix the things which are separated in the creation of God. "Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed, or put on a garment of mixed stuff." כּלאים, from כּלא separation, signifies duae res diversi generis, heterogeneae, and is a substantive in the accusative, giving a more precise definition. שעטנז is in apposition to כּלאים בּגד, and according to Deu 22:11 refers to cloth or a…
For the first three years, a newly planted fruit tree was only to be pruned and cultivated. This allowed all the strength to go back into the tree. In the fourth year, all of the fruit was considered the “first crop” and was given to God (see Exod 23:16). Only in the fifth year could the fruit be eaten.
Rashi on Leviticus 19:23
וערלתם ערלתו את פריו meant lit., ye shall close its closing (regard it as enclosed): the meaning being that it shall be, as it were, closed up and barred so that no benefit may be derived from it.
שלש שנים יהיה לכם ערלים THREE YEARS IT SHALL BE AS UNCIRCUMCISED UNTO YOU — From when does one count its three years? From the time of its (the tree's) being planted (Sifra, Kedoshim, Section 3 3). One might think that if one has laid it (the fruit) by during these three years it shall become permitted for use after the three years, Scripture therefore states, יהיה which implies it shall remain in its former state of being (forbidden as it was during the entire three years).
