Leviticus 19:19

MISCELLANEOUS DUTIES (Leviticus 19:19-37)

"Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed: neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together. And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to a husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; they shall be punished; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. And he shall bring his trespass-offering unto Jehovah, unto the door of the tent of meeting, even a ram for a trespass-offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass-offering before Jehovah for his sin which he hath sinned: and the sin which he hath sinned shall be forgiven him. 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. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto Jehovah. And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am Jehovah your God."

a. No mixed breeding

Most of this paragraph concerns the mixing of animals, plants, and materials, but the latter part of it claims the early fruits of an orchard for Jehovah. There may also be another instance here of concern that some fruit would always be available for poor or sojourners who would not have known of the age of the trees and might therefore have eaten it.

We cannot be sure why some of these things were forbidden, but, in all likelihood, they were connected with pagan customs and superstitions in which God did not allow Israel to take any part whatever. One principle stands out, and that is, things which God has separated should not be joined together, just as the counterpart of it is also true that, "What God hath joined, let no man put asunder." Dummelow thought that, "There may be an allusion to the practice of magic, in which unnatural mixtures played an important part."[18]

The forbidding of hybrids certainly made mules illegal, yet in later times they were prized in Israel.[19] Some have supposed that Israel got around this regulation by importing the mules from other peoples who were free to produce them, and certainly the Jewish mind was capable of just such an avoidance of the law, but Genesis 36:24 (KJV) mentions the "discovery of mules," with the possible meaning that they appeared independently of any human assistance in cross-breeding of horses and asses. (See my comment on the Genesis passage.)