(16) These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to scout the land; but Moses changed the name of Hosea son of Nun to Joshua.

(1) ויקרא משה להושע וגו׳ AND MOSES CALLED HOSHEA [THE SON OF NUN JEHOSHUA] — By giving him this name יהושע which is a compound of יה and הושע “God may save”, he in effect prayed for him: “May God save you from the evil counsel of the spies” (Sotah 34b).

(1) ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, the Torah means that this man was known as a man of valour by the name of Hosheah among the members of his tribe. The fact that he has been referred to as “Joshua” already in Numbers 11,28 is because in his capacity as Moses’ personal valet Moses had changed his name in the form of a prayer asking that he be the instrument of his own salvation and that of others.

ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, “Moses called (changed) the name of Hoshea to Yehoshua son of Nun. The Midrash Tanchuma, section 6 on this portion, in dealing with this change of name, writes as follows: “what prompted Moses to change the name of Hoshea to Y’hoshua by adding the letter י (equivalent the number ten) to his name? Moses foresaw that Calev, another spy who did receive his ancestral share in the Holy Land received one share, as detailed in the Book of Judges 1,20, seeing he had bothered to make a special detour at Chevron (Numbers 13,22) (“he,” sing. came to Chevron) whereas Joshua, who would lead the people to the Land and conquer it, received ten shares, this was hinted at by the change of his name. [Seeing that Joshua personally did not have any children, looking at the matter technically, although his tribe of Ephrayim, did of course receive their share, perhaps Moses wanted to indicate that he in fact, at least, in the spiritual sense of the word, “inherited” the 10 shares of the Holy Land, that would have become the shares of the other ten spies had they not slandered the land. Ed.] According to the Talmud Yerushalmi tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 2, halachah 6, by adding the letter י at the beginning of his name, so that it began with the two letters spelling the name of G–d, Moses hoped to arm him spiritually against becoming spiritually contaminated by the other ten spies. When Sarah’s name שרי had been changed to שרה, she had lost a letter, i.e. the letter י. Joshua now received this letter. Avraham had the letter ה she had lost, added to his name when that was changed from אברם to אברהם. [Seeing that they both no longer needed these two letters, having died long ago, they were used by Moses as helping Joshua to withstand the brainwashing by the ten spies. Ed.]

ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע, “Moses named Hoseah son of Nun Joshua.” According to the plain meaning of the text his name was changed, as he had been the commander of the army in the battle against Amalek. He had acquired an international reputation as a result of that encounter. Moses changed his name so that he would not be singled out as a target for the Canaanites. After all, they had never seen him, had only heard about him.

And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua [Yehoshua]. [May] God save you [yoshiecha] from the counsel of the spies. One should consider why specifically the name of God [Yah], and why he did not also pray for Caleb. It seems that because he [Moses] told them Go up through the Negev, and the spies said Amalek dwells in the land of the Negev. Rashi explained that this was because the Israelites had been burned [injured] by them [Amalek]. And Moses thought that most likely Joshua would not join in this counsel [of the spies], because on the contrary, he had weakened Amalek and its people by the sword. And for generations from that battle onwards, he [Joshua] was also secure in what was said for a hand is on the throne of God [Yah]: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation (Exodus 17:16). And with that oath that was made using the name of Yah, he would be confident in defeating Amalek. Therefore, Moses added “Yah” to his name so that he would be reminded of the oath that was made with the name of Yah, and for this reason he would not join the counsel of the spies who frightened Israel with [the threat of] Amalek.