Komentarz do Liczb 32:21

ועבר לכם כל חלוץ, "if every armed man of you will cross, etc." Why was Moses not satisfied with what he had said in the previous verse אם תחלצו? Moses made the inheritance of the tribes Reuven and Gad conditional on every man of arms-bearing age crossing the Jordan to take part in the battles against the 31 kings. Still, the question remains why Moses did not add the word כל, in the previous verse when he said אם תחלצו?

Moses' words have to be understood as follows: אם תעשון..וער לכם כל חלוץ, "if all of your able-bodied men will cross none of you will come to any harm." He implied that if only a part of the able-bodied men of these two tribes would participate in the wars of conquest they were liable to sustain casualties. The word ועבר is not to be understood as a condition but rather as a promise; "if all of your able-bodied men participate you will not have to fight but merely to cross the Jordan and G'd will do all the fighting. Such whole-hearted participation will be considered as לפני השם, there will no longer be a "curtain" dividing between you and G'd. Compare Isaiah 59,2: "your iniquities are the barrier between yourselves and your G'd." The "barrier" is made up out of Samael and the forces at his command.

Moses advisedly concludes by saying that G'd will drive out His enemies from "before Him" instead of "from before you," to hint that G'd alone will do the fighting if the two tribes were to fulfil these conditions.