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ואלה שמותם. כלם חשובים איש על שמו מצד מעלתם. והזכירם לפי זקנתם מפני שהיו אז שוים במעלה בפרט בענין השליחות לא כסדר השבטים ולא כסדר הדגלים: ואלה שמותם, each one was a distinguished person, known as such. They have been listed in order of their seniority, seeing that other than that they were equal in rank, especially in their qualifications for this mission. The reason I believe that this is the reason for the order in which they have been listed is that the list neither corresponds to the seniority of the tribes nor to the order in which the tribes were encamped.