Parashas Shelach · Side page (TT silent)
And Moshe sent them to scout the land of Canaan, and he said to them: Go up this way by the Negev, and go up into the mountain.
Rashi / Midrash Tanchuma Shelach 6: the South was the inferior part — merchants show the lesser first.
English: Go up this way by the Negev — that was the inferior part of the Land of Israel; for such is the way of merchants: they show the lesser quality first, and afterward they show the best.
Merchant’s order of display.
TT silent; Rashi teaches why the route begins in the South — so that what comes after will appear as improvement, not as decline.