Citazione Commento su Giosuè 1:12

The word he came is missing an ’alef. The meaning of the passage is that the leaders of Gad came over with the rest of Israel in battle formation, and Moshe foresaw this prophetically.

he performed God ’s righteousness i.e., he fulfilled in deed the thing of which he had spoken in word — namely, the children of Gad swore that they would go out in battle with Israel against their enemies [Numbers 32: 27]. Moshe does not mention Reuven in this context, perhaps because the tribe of Gad were more valorous than the tribe of Reuven (as is suggested by the passage in Chronicles, which says of Gad, “their faces were like the face of a lion” [I Chronicles 12: 9], without any similar statement about Reuven).

אם יעברו... ונתתם, “if they will cross, etc.,….then you will give.” Nachmanides sees in this verse a clear indication that at this time Moses did not give these two tribes all the land they had requested, except the cities that were required to accommodate their families during the period that their fighting men marched with the main body of the Jewish people. These were the towns that are mentioned here by name. The two tribes fortified those towns before moving with the balance of the people cross the Jordan. The rest of the land on the east bank they left as desolate land. This is why Joshua and the elders told them that if they would fulfill their undertaking to Moses they would also receive the areas not yet distributed (Joshua 1,12-16) Ibn Ezra explains on verse 30 that the implied meaning of the verse is that if these two tribes were not going to cross voluntarily with the main body, they would be compelled to do so against their will. As a result of such an eventuality they would receive their ancestral share on the west bank.