Joshua 11:20

20 For it was the LORD's doing ¹to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, ²just as the LORD commanded Moses.

Joshua 11:20 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 11:20

For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts
As he hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, that his power might be displayed in their destruction:

that they should come against Israel battle;
and so fall in it:

that he might destroy them utterly;
for their abominable wickedness, idolatry, incest they had been guilty of:

[and] that they might have no favour;
which they would have had, had they made peace as the Gibeonites did; or that they might not pray and make supplication, the Lord not giving them a spirit of supplication, but an hard heart, as Gussetius ^F6 observes the words may be interpreted, though he seems to prefer the former, sense:

but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses;
( Deuteronomy 7:1 Deuteronomy 7:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Comment. Ebr. p. 272.

Joshua 11:20 In-Context

18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

19 There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle.

20 For it was the LORD's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses.

21 And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities.

22 There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.

Cross References

• 1. See Exodus 4:21
• 2. Deuteronomy 20:16, 17