Leviticus 19:23-37

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. 19:24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praise offerings ⁴  to the Lord. 19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. ⁵  I am the Lord your God.

Blood, Hair, and Body

19:26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. ⁶  You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. ⁷  19:27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. ⁸  19:28 You must not slash your body for a dead person ⁹  or incise a tattoo on yourself. ¹⁰  I am the Lord. 19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, ¹¹  so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. ¹² 

Purity, Honor, Respect, and Honesty

19:30 “‘You must keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord. 19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits ¹³  to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. 19:32 You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord. 19:33 When a foreigner resides ¹⁴  with you in your land, you must not oppress him. 19:34 The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so ¹⁵  you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 19:35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume. ¹⁶  19:36 You must have honest balances, ¹⁷  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. ¹⁸  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt. 19:37 You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations. ¹⁹  I am the Lord.’”

[19:23]  ¹ tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”

[19:23]  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).

[19:23]  ³ tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”

[19:24]  ⁴ tn See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132, where the translation reads “set aside for jubilation”; a special celebration before the Lord.

[19:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[19:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.

[19:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.

[19:27]  ⁸ tc Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.

[19:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.

[19:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”

[19:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).

[19:29]  ¹² tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[19:31]  ¹³ sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.

[19:33]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And when a sojourner sojourns.”

[19:34]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[19:35]  ¹⁶ tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”

[19:36]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.

[19:36]  ¹⁸ sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 quart).

[19:37]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31).