Count the years of the sale thereof. — To regulate the price of the redemption money the crops were valued which the purchaser had enjoyed since he had acquired the property. This was deducted from what he originally paid for the plot of land, and the difference was returned to him by the vendor, to whom the patrimony reverted. Thus, for instance, if there were thirty years from the time the purchase was effected to the year of jubile, and the vendor or his next of kin redeemed the inheritance either ten or fifteen years after the transaction, he had to return to the purchaser either one-third or half of the purchase money, when the soil was restored to the seller or his next of kin. In the interest of the purchaser, however, it was enacted during the second Temple that the redemption should not take place before he had the benefit of the field for two productive years (see Leviticus 25:15), and that he could claim compensation for outlay on improvements.
Restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it. — That is, an equitable estimate is to be made of what the land is likely to yield from the time of its redemption by the vendor to the jubile, which is to be allowed to the purchaser.