Leviticus 19:23

Summary

Leviticus 19:23 instructs that when the Israelites enter the land and plant any fruit tree, the fruit of its first years is to be treated as 'orlah — literally "foreskin," here applied metaphorically to the tree. For three years the fruit is forbidden for consumption.

Key words

• ta.Vo.'u ("you will go", H0935G) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, opening the conditional clause tied to khi ("if", H3588A).
• 'a.ral.Tem ("you will regard as uncircumcised", H6188) — qal sequential perfect, the verb built on the same root as 'orlah; it applies the noun's meaning as an action performed on the tree's fruit.
• 'or.la.T ("foreskin of", H6190H) — feminine singular construct, forming a construct chain with the following object marker and pir.Y ("fruit of", H6529), producing the phrase "the foreskin of its fruit."
• 'a.re.Lim ("uncircumcised", H6189) — masculine plural adjective, describing the status assigned to the fruit for the three-year period, agreeing grammatically with "you" (the fruit's status affects what "you" may do).
• ye.'a.Khel ("it will be eaten", H0398) — niphal (passive) imperfect, marking that the fruit itself is not to be consumed, with the action's agent left unspecified.

What the text says

The verse opens with a conditional structure (ve-khi... ta.Vo.'u, "and if/when you will go") followed by a chain of sequential perfect verbs (ne.ta'.Tem, 'a.ral.Tem) that continue the temporal sequence set up by the initial imperfect. This verb chain — entering, planting, then "un-circumcising" — presents the actions as a continuous narrative sequence tied to settlement in the land.

The grammatical core of the verse is the construct phrase 'or.la.T... pir.yo ("the foreskin of its fruit"), where the noun 'orlah (H6190H), elsewhere used for the male foreskin, is applied to a tree's early fruit through the derived verb 'a.ral.Tem (H6188). The adjective 'a.re.Lim (H6189) later restates this status in plural form agreeing with "you," linking the people's legal relationship to the fruit rather than describing the fruit itself as morally impure. The final clause uses the niphal ye.'a.Khel (H0398), a passive form that states the fruit "will not be eaten" without naming who might eat it, leaving the prohibition general rather than addressed to a specific subject.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the 'orlah/'a.ral.Tem wordplay with περικαθαριεῖτε τὴν ἀκαθαρσίαν αὐτοῦ ("you shall purify its impurity"), replacing the circumcision-based metaphor with a purity/impurity term. The Vulgate keeps the literal image with auferetis praeputia eorum ("you shall remove their foreskins"), closer to the Hebrew root sense. Both ancient versions still convey a three-year prohibition on eating the fruit, matching the Hebrew's negated niphal ye.'a.Khel.