Leviticus 19:23

The Produce of Fruit Trees

19:23 “‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, ¹  you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. ²  Three years it will be forbidden to you; ³  it must not be eaten.

Leviticus 25:21

25:21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield ⁴  the produce ⁵  for three years,

Romans 2:4-5

2:4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know ⁶  that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? 2:5 But because of your stubbornness ⁷  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”

² tn Heb “you shall circumcise its fruit [as] its foreskin,” taking the fruit to be that which is to be removed and, therefore, forbidden. Since the fruit is uncircumcised it is forbidden (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306, and esp. B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 131-32).

³ tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”

⁴ tn Heb “and it [i.e., the land] shall make the produce.” The Hebrew term וְעָשָׂת (vÿ’asat, “and it shall make”) is probably an older third feminine singular form of the verb (GKC 210 §75.m). Smr has the normal form.

⁵ tn Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7, etc.) rather than “the produce.”

⁶ tn Grk “being unaware.”

⁷ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

⁸ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”