Commentaire de citation sur Les Juges 1:20

And Caleiv drove out from there. This happened after the death of Yehoshua, for during the days of Yehoshua Chevron had not yet been captured, as it is said in the book of Shoftim.¹⁵See Shoftim 1:20. It was recorded here only because of its relationship to the division of the land [among the tribes.]

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 יחושע “Moses called (renamed) Hoshea son of Nun “Joshua.” Our sages in Sotah 34 comment that Moses added the latter י to Hoshea’s name so that the letters י-ה at the beginning of his name represented a prayer that he should be saved from making common cause with the majority of the spies. Moses foresaw in his Holy Spirit that when the spies would return they would slander the land of Israel.
Another reason cited (Tanchuma Shelach 6) for Moses adding the letter י to Hoshea’s name is that Joshua and Calev who remained loyal to G’d received their reward in the Holy Land. Calev was given the city of Chevron as we know from Judges 1,20: “they gave Calev Chevron.” Joshua received the reward which would have been in store for the ten spies who perished because of the slander they spread (Numbers 14,37), a verse which is immediately followed by “and Joshua son of Nun and Calev son of Yefuneh remained alive from among the men who had gone to explore the land.” The verse contrasts what happened to the slanderers and what happened to the loyalists. The addition of the letter י suggests that Joshua inherited the share of the other ten men.

ויבא עד חברון [AND THEY WENT UP BY THE SOUTH] AND HE CAME UNTO HEBRON — Caleb alone went there and prostrated himself on the graves of the Patriarchs, offering prayer that he might be helped not to give way to the enticement of his colleagues and join them in their counsel. You may see that it was Caleb who went there, for so indeed it (Scripture) states, (Deuteronomy 1:36) “[Save Caleb the son of Jephunnch, he shall see it] and unto him will I give the land upon which he hath trodden!” and it is written, (Judges 1:20) “And they gave Hebron unto Caleb” (Sotah 34b)

אך בגורל — Joshua and Caleb are excepted from this method of division (since אך is a limiting term) and so indeed it states, (Judges 1:20) “And they gave Hebron to Caleb as Moses had said” (cf. Rashi on Numbers XlV. 24), and it further states, (Joshua 19:50) “According to the command of the Lord they gave him (Joshua) the city which he had asked” (Sifrei Bamidbar 132:3).