These are the names of the men who Moshe sent to spy out the land. Moshe called Hoshea the son of Nun Yehoshua.
The possuk already told us, prior to listing out the names of the spies, וְאֵּלֶּה שְמוֹתָם - ‘And these are their names’; why does it repeat that these are their names?
The Ohr Hachaim explains, based on the Gemara (Sotah 34b), Rabbi Yitzchak says: There is a tradition of ours that was passed down to us from our ancestors: The spies were named after their actions, but we have obtained the interpretation of only one name, the name of ‘Sesur, the son of Michael’. He is called Sesur, as he hid [sasar] the actions of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. In other words, he ignored the miracles that Hashem performed for the Jewish people in Mitzrayim and in the wilderness. He is called Michael, as he made Him, Hashem, appear weak [mach] by saying that there was not enough food in the land for everyone.
The Torah wished to tell us that Moshe changed Hoshea bin Nun’s name, thereby davening for him that he would be saved from the nefarious plans of the spies. A person may question this, asking why Moshe found it necessary to daven for Yehoshua. Why did he suspect that anything untoward would happen? The Torah answers this by telling us that the list we just read was the names of the people who were to be the spies, and their names, which are based on their actions, showed that they were already up to no good.
The Ohr Hachaim adds an explanation as to why Hoshea’s name needed to be changed to Yehoshua. Yehoshua was at a tremendous disadvantage in this fight with the Yetzer Hara. The ten spies had the numerical advantage, and their influence should end up winning him over. By adding the letter יו"ד to his name, symbolizing ten, Moshe granted him the powers of all ten tribes, and he could fight their influence by having all ten in his name.
Another benefit of Yehoshua’s adding the letter יוד to his name was that, with the incorporation of the other ten spies in his name, his reward was much greater. Chazal teach us that when someone withstands a Yetzer Hara against others, he receives his reward as well as their potential reward. Like Avraham Avinu, who not only received his own reward, but also that of the ten generations that preceded him, so too was Yehoshua rewarded for his own actions, as well as the potential reward for all of the other spies’ actions.
