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. Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 20:16-17; Deuteronomy 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 כי ki may be so translated in this place, as well as in many others; 1 Samuel 2:25. 1 Kings 12:25. See Noldius in כי, sect. 8.
Related Commentaries of Joshua 11:20
Joshua 11:20
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.