Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 25:15

"According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, [and] according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto thee." — Leviticus 25:15 (ASV)

According to the number of years ... you shall buy. —The promised land, according to the Law, was to be divided by lot in equal parts among the Israelites. The plot that would thus come into the possession of each family is to be absolutely inalienable and forever continue to be the property of the descendants of the original possessor.

Thus, it is enacted here that if a proprietor, pressed by poverty, is compelled to sell a field, it cannot be bought from him for a period longer than until the time of the next jubilee. At that point, it reverts to the original possessor or his family.

Therefore, in purchasing a plot of land, the purchaser must reckon how many years have elapsed since the last jubilee, as this will show him the exact period during which he will be entitled to hold it. This practice thus corresponds to what, for us, is buying the unexpired term of a lease.

Of your neighbor. —From this it was deduced that the Israelite who was reduced to poverty could only sell his land to a fellow-Israelite, but not to a Gentile.

The number of years of the fruit he shall sell. —While the purchaser must consider the number of years that the lease still has to run, the vendor, for his part, has to consider how many sabbatical years will occur from the time of the sale until the next jubilee. This is because the sale was not so much of the land itself, but rather of the produce of a certain number of years.

Hence, the fallow sabbatical years are not to be included. Furthermore, because the plural “number of years” is used here, the authorities during the Second Temple period concluded that the vendor could not sell the land for less than two productive years, exclusive of any sabbatical year, any year of barrenness, or the first harvest if the purchase was made shortly before the seventh month when the produce was ripe in the field.