כי לקחו מטה בני הראובני, for the tribe of Reuven had taken it according to the houses of their fathers, etc. This verse provides the reason why the previous verse spoke about the West Bank being shared out amongst only nine and a half tribes. Had it not been for the fact that the two and a half tribes had already staked out their claims G'd would have been able to enlarge the shares of each tribe beyond the boundaries mentioned in our chapter.

לקחו נחלתם, "they took their inheritance, etc." The Torah had to repeat this statement a second time seeing that the half tribe Menashe had not been amongst the tribes Reuven and Gad who had initially requested to make their homes on the East Bank. The Torah therefore described that half tribe's taking possession of their share as a separate "taking." Accordingly, the words: לקחו נחלתם, refer back to the half tribe of Menashe. This is also the reason the Torah interrupted the sequence by writing לבית אבותם between the two tribes of Reuven and Gad and between the half tribe Menashe. Another meaning for writing the words: "they took their inheritance" twice is to confirm that what the half tribe of Menashe "took" was in accordance with what they were entitled to take as their inheritance.

שני המטות וחצי המטה לקחו נחלתם, The two and a half tribes took their inheritance, etc. The Torah wrote this verse to indicate that the inheritance of the half tribe of Menashe was part of the overall territory allocated by Moses to Reuven and Gad. Moses did not make separate boundaries for each of these tribes.

למטה יהודה, for the tribe of Yehudah. We need to explore why the leaders of the tribes of Yehudah, Shimon, and Benjamin are not given the title נשיא in our paragraph. Perhaps the reason is connected to the fact that the names of these three tribes appear quite close to the words ונשיא אחד נשיא אחד in verse 18 so that the Torah saw no need to repeat the word נשיא again. Starting with verse 22 the names of the tribes are so far removed from verse 18 that the Torah saw fit to add the title נשיא when mentioning the leader of the respective tribes.

I have a seen a comment in the name of Rabbenu Nissim that there was no need to write the word נשיא in connection with the tribe of Yehudah as everybody knew that it was Calev ben Yefuneh. In the case of the tribe of Shimon the reason was that this tribe was not worthy of having a leader with the title נשיא in view of the affair with Zimri. In the case of the tribe of Benjamin, there was no need to mention that Eldod held the title נשיא, as he held a better title having been a prophet already since the time the 70 elders had been chosen in Numbers 11,16-29. Calling Eldod a "prince" would have amounted to a demotion rather than a promotion for him.

Perhaps one may add that the term נשיא was not allocated to the temporary leader of the tribe of Yehudah seeing that this tribe would produce a king for the entire nation, not just a prince for itself. A similar consideration may have applied to the tribe of Benjamin seeing that the realisation of a Jewish Kingdom, i.e. the first king of Israel, Saul, would come from that tribe. As far as the absence of a mention of a prince for the tribe of Shimon is concerned, the reason advanced was quite adequate.