Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Numbers 32:24-26
Moses Permits Settlement On Their Accepting His Conditions (Numbers 32:24).
“ Build you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do what has proceeded out of your mouth.”
So he gave them permission to make the necessary safeguards for the future of their families, to repair and reinforce the fenced cities that had been captured, and to erect folds for their animals, on the condition that they would then go forward with the children of Israel over the Jordan.
‘And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do as my lord commands.” '
So the Gaddites and Reubenites said that they would do all that Moss commanded. Note the terminology with which they address him, which speaks of a contemporary situation remembered, ‘my lord'. This was a rare use of the term, in the giving of an official commitment (compare Numbers 12:11).
“ Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead, but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before Yahweh to battle, as my lord says.” '
They covenanted that their little ones, and their wives, and their flocks and their cattle would remain in the cities of Gilead (lower Gilead), but they would cross the Jordan with Israel, every man armed for war. They would go forward ‘before Yahweh' to battle, as Moses, their lord had said.