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.
For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts ... The Canaanite kings, with their people, although they had been informed of the miraculous passage through the Red Sea, and afterward through the Jordan, as well as of the sudden demolition of the walls of Jericho, were still determined to resist the progress of the God-favoured people. Greater obduracy or more inveterate enmity can hardly be conceived. Thus they were ripened for destruction.
That they should come against Israel in battle, that he (i:e., Israel) might destroy them. Their destruction is here distinctly ascribed to their obduracy. The reason assigned for their resistance is, that "it was of the Lord to harden their hearts ... that they might have no favour, but that he (Israel) might destroy them" - that is, God, in righteous judgment, gave them up to hardness of heart, as a punishment of their former guilt, and as a preparation for a still greater punishment (see Jamieson's 'Sacred History,' 2:, p; 163).