Commentary for Numbers 32:22

ונכבשה הארץ, "and the land will be conquered, etc." Why did these words have to be written after we heard at the end of the last verse that G'd will drive out His enemies before Him? Furthermore, why did Moses have to mention once more: "and after that you will return?" We already understood from the context that after the other tribes had been settled the tribes of Reuven and Gad would return to their families on the East Bank. Actually, Moses wanted to tell the two tribes that as a result of their keeping their bargain a number of promises would be fulfilled. 1) The land would be subdued; 2) every one of them would return home whole in body and in spirit. Although we have been told in Baba Batra 121 that Yair the son of Menashe was killed in the fighting against the town of Ai, he belonged to the other half of the tribe of Menashe who had chosen the Left Bank as their rightful heritage. He was not amongst the people whom Moses addressed in our paragraph.

V. 22. והייתם נקיים מד׳ ומישראל (vergl. Bereschit 24, 41). והיית נקי מאלתי, אז תנקה מאלתי der mir geleistete Eid wird dir nichts mehr anhaben können, du wirst von ihm aus keine Verpflichtung mehr haben, du hast ihm genügt. So auch hier: Gott und Israel werden keine Forderung weiter an euch haben.

Moses also made a point of stating that these two tribes would have discharged their duties both vis-a-vis G'd and vis-a vis Israel as long as they crossed the Jordan prepared to do battle. The important thing was their motivation, as we have pointed out previously. As long as what they did was לשם שמים rather than for their own selfish motives even the people (10 tribes) would not harbour any bad feelings against these two tribes. Moses added the words: "this land will become your inheritance before G'd," that their participation in helping the other tribes to conquer and to settle on the West Bank would make their own lands safe against intruders.

It is possible that by repeating the expression לפני השם, "in the presence of G'd," Moses meant to say that although their land was חוצה לארץ, "outside the boundaries of the Holy Land proper," they would be considered as if they had made their residence within the Holy Land. The land would be considered holy as no strip of secular land separated between it and ארץ ישראל proper.