Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 11:20
For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, [and] that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
20. For it was of the Lord ] “Forsothe the sentence of the Lord it was,” Wyclif. Compare Exo 4:21, “When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go;” and Exo 7:3, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt;” Jos 14:4; Rom 9:17. Here, as everywhere in Scripture where such hardening is spoken of, it is to be carefully borne in mind, that it is always inflicted as a judgment on those who had previously acted contrary to the Divine will. This is true of
( a) Pharaoh, who had grievously and cruelly oppressed the Israelites for his own selfish ends;
( b) The Canaanites, who had persisted in the lowest and most degrading idolatry and sensuality;
( c) The Israelites, who in spite of warning and example fell away into idolatry in like manner, and forgat the Lord, Who had done such great things for them (Isa 6:10; Mat 13:12-15).
The same is in a measure said of Sihon king of the Amorites (Deu 2:30); of Samson (Jdg 14:4); of the sons of Eli (1Sa 2:25); of Solomon (1Ki 12:15); of Ahaziah (2Ch 22:7); of Amaziah (2Ch 25:16; 2Ch 25:20). It is expressed also in the Latin proverb, “Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See the marginal references.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. It was of the Lord to harden their hearts] They had sinned against all the light they had received, and God left them justly to the hardness, obstinacy, and pride of their own hearts; for as they chose to retain their idolatry, God was determined that they should be cut off. For as no city made peace with the Israelites but Gibeon and some others of the Hivites, Jos 11:19, it became therefore necessary to destroy them; for their refusal to make peace was the proof that they wilfully persisted in their idolatry.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It was the design of Gods providence not to soften their hearts to a compliance with the Israelites, but to give them up to their own animosity, pride, confidence, and stubbornness; that so both their abominable and incorrigible wickedness might be severely punished and that the Israelites might not be mixed with them, but be entire among themselves in the possession of the land. Compare Deu 2:30, and for the phrase, Exo 7:13; 9:12; 14:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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, c. 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 f 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; De 7:1.
f Comment. Ebr. p. 272.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(20) It was of the Lord to harden their hearts . . . that he might destroy them.Or rather to strengthen their hearti.e., render them obstinate. These words go to prove what has been said elsewhere, that the conquest of Canaan was not intended to be a massacre of the unresisting inhabitants.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. It was of the Lord to harden their hearts It is a Hebraism to ascribe to direct divine agency the results of human perverseness, as in the case of Pharaoh. These nations had filled the cup of their iniquity, (Gen 15:16,) and their idolatry and crimes demanded punishment. God therefore leaves them to judicial blindness and infatuation, and uses Israel as the rod of his anger to destroy them utterly. So their hardened hearts and consequent destruction were but the certain outcome, according to Divine arrangement, of their own, as of every sinner’s, free and wilful sinning. But we are not to understand, with Calvin, a miraculous operation of God, urging them on to blind fury. Their own self-induced perversity was a sufficient power for this.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ For it was of YHWH to harden their hearts, that they might come against Israel to battle, that he might destroy them utterly (devote them), that they might have no favour but that he might destroy them, as YHWH commanded Moses.’
This indeed was within YHWH’s purpose. The offer of peace was made because it was humane, but the wickedness of their hearts was such that it was better that they were destroyed. And this was what YHWH had commanded Moses (Deu 7:2). The hardening of their hearts was an indication that in the end YHWH was seen as over all things, even men’s thoughts. But He would not have hardened their hearts if they had not hardened their own hearts.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 20. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts He hardened them in the same sense that he had hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Instead of inspiring them with a greater terror than that wherewith they were stricken, instead of giving them any respite, instead of opening their eyes through the agency of his Almighty Grace, he left them to the working of their own passions, Wis 10:11. Unworthy the assistance of that grace, by reason of their enormous disorders, and their perverse obstinacy in guilt, that which should naturally have softened only hardened them. God therefore, enraged at their incorrigible wickedness, abandoned them to themselves, and to a corruption which, through their own fault, drew them into utter ruin. In this sense it is that God hardened them, or rather, that, being left by him, they hardened themselves, so as to venture, after all that had happened, to come against Israel in battle, that he (Israel) might destroy them. Deu 7:2; Deu 20:16-17; Deu 20:20. See Waterland’s Scrip. Vind. part 2: p. 58. This forsaking them was really a punishment of the Canaanites for their crimes, and especially because they had refused peace. The text says as much; at least it is certain that the Hebrew particle ki may be so translated in this place, as well as in many others; 1Sa 2:25. 1Ki 12:25. See Noldius in , sect. 8.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jos 11:20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, [and] that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Ver. 20. For it was of the Lord. ] Punishing them with a judiciary hardness, who were before hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and malice of Satan.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
of the LORD. Because they were the descendants of the Nephilim; and it was as necessary for the Sword to destroy these, as the Flood those.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
it was: Exo 4:21, Exo 9:16, Deu 2:30, Jdg 14:4, 1Sa 2:25, 1Ki 12:15, 1Ki 22:20-23, 2Ch 25:16, Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10, Rom 9:18, Rom 9:22, Rom 9:23
as the Lord: Jos 11:12-15, Deu 20:16, Deu 20:17
Reciprocal: Num 21:1 – then Deu 20:11 – tributaries Jos 6:25 – Rahab Jos 8:17 – a man Jos 10:1 – how the Jos 19:36 – Hazor Jdg 4:7 – And I Est 9:2 – as sought Psa 46:8 – desolations Isa 63:17 – and hardened Joh 12:40 – hardened Rom 2:5 – But after
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
11:20 For it was of the LORD to {l} harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, [and] that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
(l) That is, to give them over to themselves: and therefore they could not but rebel against God and seek their own destruction.