Commentaire sur Les Nombres 32:5

ויאמרו…יתן את הארץ הזאת, They said:…"may this land be given to us." The word ויאמרו is necessary here although nobody had interrupted the spokesmen of the tribes of Gad and Reuven as yet. The Torah wanted to show by interposing this word that only now did these spokesmen address themselves to the real reason why they wanted just these lands. They did not say to Moses: תתן, "give," but יותן, "may it be given." The reason they formulated the request thus was because they were aware that it was not within Moses' authority alone to grant their wish, as we have already explained. They may have given Moses the option to allocate the land to them single-handedly seeing he was the king, or after consulting with Eleazar and the princes.

V. 5. ויאמרו. Diese wiederholte Aufnahme der Anrede setzt eine Pause voraus und zeigt, dass sie selbst nicht ganz frei von dem Bedenken waren, wie ihr Antrag aufgenommen werden würde. Sie bedurften einer Pause, um sich zur Fortsetzung des Vorbringens ihres Anliegens zu sammeln.

אל תעברנו את הירדן, "do not make us cross the Jordan." Baba Batra 109 explains the meaning of the word העבר as being similar to the same word in Numbers 27,8: והעברתם את נחלתו לבתו, "you will transfer his inheritance to his daughter." It means that the daughter transfers the inheritance from its original place. The two tribes implied that if Moses were not to grant their request he would in fact transfer their rightful inheritance from its proper place.