Bamidbar: Bamidbar: How was the tribe of Naftali different than the others?

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Ch.1, vs.42

How was the tribe of Naftali different than the others?

בְּנֵ֣י נַפְתָּלִ֔י תּוֹלְדֹתָ֥ם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמֹ֗ת מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כֹּ֖ל יֹצֵ֥א צָבָֽא׃

[Of] the descendants of Naphtali, the registration of the clans of their ancestral house as listed by name, aged twenty years and over, all who were able to bear arms.

The verse says “Bnei Naftali” and not “LeBnei” as is written for all the other tribes.

The reason for this, is because the ballots were first all mixed up and put into one big box. The heads of each tribe took turns sorting their tribe’s families, with Naftali being the last one to do so.

Another explanation is that the letter lamed alludes to the fact that the tribe of Naftali was the only tribe that had more females than males.

This is also alluded to in Yaakov's blessing when he said that Nafatali would be an “ayalah schlucha hanoten/free running deer who delivers,” in which the first letter of each word spells  “ishah/woman”, informing us that women made up most of this tribe.

(Netziv, Baal Haturim see Massorah, Siftei Kohen)

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