Imamat 19:23-24

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.

[19:23]  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.