The Courage to Speak Up
“Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and his children will I give the land on which he has trodden because he has wholly followed the L-rd” (Deuteronomy 1:36).
This verse is perplexing: Why doesn’t it mention Joshua who, like Caleb, stood up to his fellow spies and urged the Jewish people to enter the Land of Israel with trust in G-d?
The Torah, in fact, mentions Joshua in a similar verse, Numbers 14:30 – “Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun” – but even in this verse Joshua’s name appears only after Caleb’s. Why? Furthermore, what precisely do the words “wholly followed the L-rd” in Deuteronomy 1:36 mean?
In his commentary to Numbers 14:30, the Ibn Ezra explains that Caleb’s name precedes Joshua’s because Caleb was the first to challenge his fellow spies. In other words, although Joshua certainly trusted G-d and had no doubt that the Jews could conquer Eretz Yisrael, he didn’t have the courage to publicly oppose the other spies until Caleb did so. Hence, Caleb’s name appears first.
Deuteronomy 1:36 – which concerns not only entering the land but inheriting it as well – omits Joshua’s name entirely because only Caleb inherited precisely that which he risked his life over – i.e., Hebron. As the Midrash relates: The spies stayed together throughout their mission in Eretz Yisrael, not willing to risk splitting up, but Caleb went to Hebron to pray alone at Me’arat HaMachpela, the graves of our forefathers. Hebron was home to giants – which is why the rest of the spies stayed away (as the Radak writes in his commentary to Joshua 14:9) – but Caleb was not concerned. Hence the Torah’s declaration that Caleb “wholly followed the L-rd.” Caleb’s faith was “whole,” complete.
Peirush HaMaccabee