Charles Ellicott 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 their uncircumcision: three years shall they be as uncircumcised unto you; it shall not be eaten." — Leviticus 19:23 (ASV)

And when ye shall come. —Rather, And when ye be come, as the Authorised Version renders the same phrase in Leviticus 14:34.

This is one of four instances in Leviticus where a law was given prospectively, having no immediate bearing on the condition of the people of Israel (namely, Leviticus 14:34; Leviticus 19:23; Leviticus 23:10). Although all four enactments are introduced by the same phrase, they are translated in three different ways in the Authorised Version: When ye be come into the land, in Leviticus 14:34 and Leviticus 23:10; When ye shall come into the land, in Leviticus 19:23; and When ye come into the land, in Leviticus 25:2. This gives the impression that the phrases in the original were different in the various passages. In legislative formulas, it is important to render the same phraseology uniformly in a translation.

Shall have planted all manner of trees for food. —From this declaration, the administrators of the law during the Second Temple period inferred that trees planted by the inhabitants of Canaan before the Israelites took possession of it were exempt from this law, and that it only applies to fruit trees intended for food, such as citron trees, olive trees, fig trees, vines, etc.

Trees that bore fruit unfit for human food, which grew up by themselves, or which were planted for hedges or timber, did not come under this law.

Then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. —Literally, then shall you circumcise its uncircumcision, its fruit. This means that its uncircumcision, which the text itself explains as “its fruit,” is to be cut off or pinched off. The metaphorical use of circumcision is thus explained by the text itself: it denotes the fruit as disqualified or unfit. In Leviticus 26:41, the same metaphor is used for the heart that is stubborn or not ready to listen to Divine admonitions. And in other passages of Scripture, it is used with reference to lips (Exodus 6:12; Exodus 6:30) and ears (Jeremiah 6:10) that do not perform their proper functions.

Three years shall it be. —The cutting off of the fruit is to be repeated every year for three successive years. The produce of the first year, if allowed to grow on the trees, is both stunted and tasteless; moreover, plucking off the fruit or pinching off the blossom helps the trees thrive better and bear more abundantly afterwards.

Therefore, the Lawgiver enacts as law here what was a common practice among careful farmers from time immemorial, thus preventing greedy owners from acting in a way that would ultimately be to their own material harm.

It shall not be eaten. —According to the authorities in the time of Christ, this interdict extended to any and every advantage that could be derived from the first three years’ produce. The fruits were not to be sold, but were to be either burnt or buried in the ground; and if anyone ate as much as an olive, they received forty stripes save one.