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 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 Lo...

15-23 Never let the sons of Anak be a terror to the Israel of God, for their day to fall will come. The land rested from war. It ended not in a peace with the Canaanites, that was forbidden, but in a peace from them. There is a rest, a rest from war, remaining for the people of God, into which they shall enter, when their warfare is accomplished. That which was now done, is compared with what had been said to Moses. God's word and his works, if viewed together, will be found mutually to set each other forth. If we make conscience of our duty, we need not question the performance of the promise. But the believer must never put off his armour, or expect lasting peace, till he closes his eyes in death; nay, as his strength and usefulness increase, he may expect more heavy trials; yet the Lord will not permit any enemies to assault the believer till he has prepared him for the battle. Chris...

Verse Joshua 11:20. _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, Joshua 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....

See the marginal references....

EXPOSITION THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.— JOSHUA 11:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS. The political constitution of Palestine was, humanly speaking, the cause of its overthrow. The division of the country into a host of petty states, and the consequent want of cohesion and concert, made its conquest a comparatively easy task. Had the kings of the north rallied round the standard set up in Central Palestine by Adoni-zedek, a far more formidable opposition would have been offered to Joshua at Gibeon. Calvin takes us, however, at once to the fountain head, and remarks how God fitted the burden to those who had to bear it. In spite of the great things God had done to them, they might have been driven to despair (and every one knows how weak their faith was) by the ove

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; Deuteronomy 7:1. f Comment. Ebr. p. 272....

FURTHER CONQUESTS CHAPTER 11 _ 1. Jabin and his confederacy (Joshua 11:1)_ 2. The divine encouragement (Joshua 11:6) 3. The victory (Joshua 11:7) 4. The obedience of Joshua (Joshua 11:15) 5. The continued conflict with the kings (Joshua 11:16) The Kings of the north formed the second confederacy, headed by Jabin, King of Hazor. Jabin means “understanding” and Hazor, “an enclosure.” He with other kings, and with them “much people even as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots

JOSHUA 11. DEFEAT OF JABIN AND HIS COALITION. Jabin, king of Hazor, gathers a vast army of Canaanites at the Waters of Merom (locality uncertain, p. 32). The coalition was utterly defeated, the king was slain, and his city burnt. In Judges 4, a king of the same name and the same city appears, who for twenty years mightily oppressed the children of Israel. Joshua's victory here seems to be inconsistent with the account given of Jabin in Judges 4. The original story of Barak's campaign (Judges 5) has no reference to Jabin, but only to Sisera. The prose narrative (Judges 4) combines the war against Sisera with that against Jabin, and makes the former the general of the latter. It is noticeable that the terms of the short narrative in which the battle is here described are very vague and general, and 8, with its statement that the Israelites pursued their enemies as far as Zidon in the N. an...

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....

General Retrospect of the Conquest of Palestine 16. _So Joshua took_ The sacred writer pauses to survey and sum up the conquests of the Israelitish leader. _the hills_ The country is contemplated under a sevenfold division, (i) the cities; (ii) the south country; (iii) the land of Goshen (comp. Joshua 10:41); (iv) the valley; (v) the plain; (vi) the mountain of Israel; (vii) the valley of the same....