Seeking authentic tafseer for Qur'an 5:12 to better understand the Shia Imamat?

Question

Can anyone provide me several authentic tafseer for the Quranic verse 5:12?

And Allah had already taken a covenant from the Children of Israel, and We delegated from among them twelve leaders. And Allah said, "I am with you. If you establish prayer and give zakah and believe in My messengers and support them and loan Allah a goodly loan, I will surely remove from you your misdeeds and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoever of you disbelieves after that has certainly strayed from the soundness of the way." -- Qur'an 5:12

This ayah is taken as the base for understanding Imamat in Shia ithna ashari. I want to better understand this.

Answer 1

You cannot say that this verse is the base for understanding Imamat in Shia Ithna ashari, as the verse is referring to the children of Israel.

But in hadeeth, the Holy Prophet spoke about his twelve vicegerents, comparing them in terms of number to the chiefs of the Israelites.

The vicegerents after me are twelve. They are as many as the chiefs of the Israelites.

Musnad Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, vol. 1, 398

There are other verses of the Holy Qur'an which were revealed in honor of the Ahl-ul-bayt of the Prophet (from which the 12 Shia imams originate) (e.g. 33:33; 42:23) and many hadeeth describing their special status (e.g. Hadeeth al-Kisa).