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._ Fruit ... three years ... it shall not be eaten. '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 afterward. 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)....

23._And when ye shall come. _There seems to me no question but that the circumcision of trees as well as of men appertains to the First Commandment, not only that the Jews might see a symbol of their own adoption in the very trees, but that they might learn that it was permitted to none but the children of God to feed on their fruit; and also that whatsoever the earth produces is in a manner profane, until it is purified. For surely by this ceremony was set forth what Paul teaches, that all things are “sanctified by the word of God, and prayer,” (1 Timothy 4:5;) not that anything is in itself impure, but because the earth has contracted pollution from the corruption of man, it is just, as regards us, that the harmless fruits also should be accounted to be in uncircumcision. In sum, God would raise up a wall whereby He might separate His people from the Gentiles, and at the same time a

Verse 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, Leviticus 19:24; and in the _fifth_ year and afterward the fruit may be employed for common use, Leviticus 19:25....

FRUIT ... UNCIRCUMCISED - i. e. unfit for presentation to Yahweh. In regard to its spiritual lesson, this law may be compared with the dedication of the first-born of beasts to Yahweh Exodus 13:12; Exodus 34:19. Its meaning in a moral point of view was plain, and tended to illustrate the spirit of the whole Law....

EXPOSITION From the prohibition of moral uncleanness exhibiting itself in the form of incest and licentiousness, the legislator proceeds to a series of laws and commandments against other kinds of immorality, inculcating piety, righteousness, and kindness. Leviticus 19:1 may be regarded as an extension of the previous chapter in this direction, after which the subject of Leviticus 18:1, is again taken up in Leviticus 20:1. The precepts now given are not arranged systematically, though, as Keil has remarked, "while_ _grouped together rather according to a loose association of ideas than according to any logical arrangement, they are all linked together by the common purpose expressed in th

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, what they planted, though they had not subdued it (the land), was bound: THEN YE SHALL COUNT THE FRUIT THEREOF AS UNCIRCUMCISED; not fit to be eaten, but to be taken off and cast away as the foreskin of...

2. DIFFERENT DUTIES CHAPTER 19 _ 1. Honoring parents and fearing God (Leviticus 19:1)_ 2. The care of the poor (Leviticus 19:9) 3. Against stealing and lying (Leviticus 19:11) 4. Against oppression (Leviticus 19:13) 5. Against unrighteousness in judgment (Leviticus 19:15) 6. Thou shalt love thy neighbor (Leviticus 19:17) 7. Different commands and prohibitions ...

HOLINESS IN FARM LIFE AND BETWEEN THE SEXES. Hybrids are forbidden; a rule which, with its curious extensions, is found in Deuteronomy 22:9 f.; but contrast 2 Samuel 13:29; 1 Kings 10:25; Ezekiel 27:14; mules were highly valued in Palestine. Perhaps some magical heathen practice is the real object of the prohibition. [Mixtures of wool and cotton played a part in magic, and that probably accounts for the prohibition of two kinds of stuff, which is explained in Deuteronomy 22:11 as wool and linen together. In...

WHEN YE SHALL COME. The second of four prospective laws. See note on Leviticus 14:34. Compare Leviticus 19:23; Leviticus 23:10; Leviticus 23:25. UNCIRCUMCISED: or, uncovenanted. Figure of speech _Prosopopoeia_. App-6....

Miscellaneous precepts in reference to the various circumstances of every-day life....