Comentario sobre Números 32:40

ויתן משה את הגלעד למכיר בן מנשה, “Moses gave the Gilead to Machir son of Menashe.” The meaning, of course, is that Moses allocated the territory of Gilead to the family of Machir, Machir himself having died long before the Exodus. His offspring had conquered the Gilead and it was customary that the children called themselves by the name of the founder of their family. It is remotely possible that the original Machir had still been alive, seeing that the decree that all the men between twenty and sixty who had been alive at the time of the Exodus would die in the desert would not have applied to, him seeing that he would have been way past 60 at the time of the Exodus.

ויתן משה את הגלעד למכיר, “Moses gave the region known as hagilad, to Machir; this was because he was the firstborn of Menashe’s sons, so that Moses allocated his share to him first. Seeing that at that time Machir was already aged, having been too old to be part of the army, he gave him a fortified city. He remained there during the 14 years that the two and a half tribes were engaged in fighting with the tribes who would settle on the West Bank.