Commentary for Numbers 32:32

ואתנו אחזת נחלתנו AND LET POSSESSION OF OUR INHERITANCE BE WITH US [ON THIS SIDE OF THE JORDAN] — it is as much as to say: (ואתנו) in our hands and in our ownership let the possession of our inheritance be on this side.

ויענו בני גד ובני ראובן לאמור, וגו, The Children of Gad and 'the Children of Reuven responded by saying:” נחנו נעבור חלוצים, “we are going to cross as the vanguard.” Nachmanides understands the two tribes as saying to Moses that there was no need to spell out what would happen if they did not cross the Jordan, etc.; not only would they do so but they would be in the forefront of the fighting men. Seeing that Moses’ instructions were G’d’s words, it was unthinkable that they should not accept His command. Note that originally, (verse 25) they had promised to do what Moses would command, and now they rephrase this saying they would do what G’d had commanded.

In our possession will be… Rashi wishes to answer the question: When it wrote ואתנו אחוזת נחלתנו מעבר לירדן [lit. "and with us, our permanent inheritance on this side of the Yardein"] to the east, this implies that they took the land with them, but this is impossible. He also has a further difficulty as to why is it written מעבר לירדן [lit. "on the other side of the Yardein"]? Surely they took their inheritance on this side. [In answering] Rashi adds the word “will be” because the statement, “In our hands, in our possession our hereditary territory” might imply that the hereditary territory was already in their hands. Therefore Rashi adds the word “will be” because they had not yet taken this territory, and would only do so after the fulfillment of the conditions. Consequently, they meant that their inheritance would come to them after the fulfillment of the conditions, as if they had said that after the fulfillment of the conditions they would no longer request to take possession across the Yardein and beyond. For they would have received their inheritance on the eastern side of the Yardein, retroactive to the time before they crossed, once they had fulfilled the conditions, given that they had already made an acquisition of their inheritance by building pens for sheep and flocks, and [building] cities for the children and settling within them.

V. 32. ואתנו אחזת נחלתנו. Es heißt dies wohl: die Besitznahme unseres diesseitigen Erbes geht mit uns hinüber, d. h. nicht diesseits können wir diese Besitznahme vollziehen, sondern mit dem, was wir jenseits des Jardens leisten, verwirklichen wir die Besitznahme des von uns verlangten diesseitigen Landes.