אור החיים — ועבדי כלב עקב היתה רוח אחרת עמו

Q — Calev is singled out for reward because 'a different spirit (רוח אחרת) was with him,' which set him apart from the other spies. But Yehoshua also did not join the spies' slander — didn't he too have a 'different spirit'?

A — Or HaChaim gives a surprising reversal: 'רוח אחרת' does not mean a superior spirit but the presence of an evil inclination working on Calev. Yehoshua had been shielded by Moshe's prayer (the added letter to his name) from the yetzer hara of the spies, so he was never truly endangered. Calev, by contrast, entered the full danger of the evil inclination and its wicked company — an evil spirit stirred within him (proven by his going to prostrate at the patriarchs' graves) — and nonetheless 'fulfilled after Me,' completing God's will. By the principle that one who is confronted by sin and is saved is rewarded as one who performs a mitzvah, Calev's struggle earned him greater reward than Yehoshua, who faced no such test.