Joshua 11:20 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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.
to fasten upon · preposition + verb, piel infinitive construct
hearts
לִבָּם֩li.Bam
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
against
קִרְאָהqirʼâh
H7125
an encountering
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
battle
הַמִּלְחָמָ֤הha.mil.cha.Mah
H4421
a battle (i.e. the engagement) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
utterly
הַֽחֲרִימָ֔םha.cha.ri.Mam
H2763
to seclude · verb, hiphil infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
favour
תְּחִנָּ֑הte.chi.Nah
H8467
graciousness · noun, common feminine singular absolute
destroy
הַשְׁמִידָ֔םhash.mi.Dam
H8045
to desolate · verb, hiphil infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
commanded
צִוָּ֥הtzi.Vah
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Moses
מֹשֶֽׁהmo.Sheh
H4872
Mosheh · proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Deuteronomy 20:16-17 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Exodus 4:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in t…
Deuteronomy 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he migh…
Deuteronomy 7:16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou…
Exodus 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the ear…
Exodus 14:17 And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all hi…
Joshua 11:12-15 And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly des…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 11:15–end
We have here the conclusion of this whole matter.
I. A short account is here given of what was done in four things: - 1. The obstinacy of the Canaanites in their opposition to the Israelites. It was strange that though it appeared so manifestly that God fought for Israel, and in every engagement the Canaanites had the worst of it, yet they stood it out to the last; not one city made peace with Israel, but the Gibeonites only, who understood the things that belonged to their peace better than their neighbours, Jos 11:19. It is intimated that other cities might have made as good terms for themselves, without ragged clothes and clouted shoes, if they would have humbled themselves, but they neve…
from the mount Halak--Hebrew, "the smooth mountain."
that goeth up to Seir--an irregular line of white naked hills, about eighty feet high, and seven or eight geographical miles in length that cross the whole Ghor, eight miles south of the Dead Sea, probably "the ascent of Akrabbim" [ROBINSON].
unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon--the city or temple of the god of destiny, in Baalbec.
Adam Clarke on 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, 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.
John Gill on 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, &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…
The Church Fathers
"There was no city which the Lord did not deliver to the children of Israel, except perhaps those who lived in Gibeon. Israel violently overthrew all of them because the Lord hardened their hearts that they would fight Israel and be killed and not be shown mercy and die, just as the Lord had commanded Moses." If it happened by the will of the Lord that Israel not receive or accept peace, then let us say with the apostle, "Why, therefore, does he object? For who can resist the will of the Lord?"
For it was through the Lord that his heart was comforted, so that they would make war with Israel so that they would be exterminated, and not be granted mercy, but be exterminated, as the Lord said to Moses. Here the phrase is used: Through the Lord he was made to have his heart strengthened, that is, to harden his heart, in the same sense as when speaking of Pharaoh. When God abandons and the enemy conquers, we should not doubt the least that this happens precisely because of a divine and mysterious judgment. And the phrase here has the same meaning as there. But here it is striking that it is said that their heart hardened to take up arms against Israel, and so the Israelites had no compassion for them, as if they had had it in case they had not risen up in arms, being so God had commanded that no one be forgiven, and that if they forgave the Gibeonites it was because they had pretended that they were coming from a distant land, and they were forced to forgive them because of the oath. But as the Israelites took pity on some of them, even against God's command, we must think that here they were told that they had risen up in arms so that they would not be forgiven and so that the Israelites would not be persuaded and had compassion for them. they against the command of God. We think that this could not happen with Joshua the chief, who scrupulously kept all the divine precepts. However, Joshua could not have destroyed these enemies so quickly if he had not been opposed in an absolutely unanimous way. And so it could have happened that, not destroyed by Joshua, who cared to fulfill the commands of God, they could have stayed until the time when, after Joshua's death, they could be spared by those who did not fulfill God's commands. so much care Even during the life of Joshua the Israelites spared the lives of some, subjecting them only to servitude. Some could not even beat them. But this did not happen as chief Joshua, but, when he was old and the war had ceased, he only distributed some lands to them, so that, when Joshua had ceased the war, they had already distributed those lands, partly free of enemies, and, in part, conquered in war. That the Israelites could not overcome certain peoples, because the Lord determined it, is clearly demonstrated in some texts of the Scriptures.
Dictionary and topics
Joshua — Jehovah is his help, or Jehovah the Saviour. The son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, the successor of Moses as the leader of Israel. He is called Jehoshua in Num. 13:16 (A.V.), and Jesus in Acts…
Predestination — This word is properly used only with reference to God’s plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered “predestinate” is found only in these six passages, Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7;…
Salmon — Garment, the son of Nashon (Ruth 4:20; Matt. 1:4, 5), possibly the same as Salma in 1 Chr. 2:51.
Heart, Character Of The Unrenewed · Often judicially hardened — Often judicially hardened
Predestination · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
War · Of extermination — Of extermination
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Joshua 11:16-23
16. So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same;
16. Et cepit Josue omnem terram istam montanam, et omnem australem, omnemque Gosen et planitiem atque campestria, montem quoque Israel et planitiem ejus.
17. Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them.
17. A monte Laevi qui assurgit versus Seir usque ad Baalgad in campo Libani sub monte Hermon: omnes quoque reges eorum cepit, et percussit eos et interfecit.
18.…
Joshua made war with the kings of Canaan a long time; judging from Jos 14:7, Jos 14:10, as much as seven years, though Josephus (Ant. v. 1, 19) speaks of five (see at Jos 14:10). No town submitted peaceably to the Israelites, with the exception of Gibeon: they took the whole in war. "For it was of the Lord" (Jos 11:20), i.e., God ordered it so that they (the Canaanites) hardened their heart to make war upon Israel, that they might fall under the ban, and be destroyed without mercy. On the hardening of the heart as a work of God, see the remarks upon the hardening of Pharaoh (Exo 4:21). It cannot be inferred from this, that if the Canaanites had received the Israelites amicably, God would hav…
The judgment on Canaan was God’s, not Israel’s. God had extended mercy to the Canaanites for several generations. However, God determined that “the sins of the Amorites” now “warrant their destruction” (Gen 15:16), and he hardened their hearts. God used Israel as the instrument and agent of his judgment, just as in later centuries God used other nations to execute judgment upon Israel and Judah for their sins.
Rashi on Joshua 11:18
For many days did Yehoshua. This verse was said to criticize Yehoshua, who intended to delay the conquest of the land, in order to lengthen his days, for it is said, “And you will apportion it to them.”6It took seven years for Yehoshua to conquer the whole land. Our Sages say that he could have conquered the land more quickly. It did not have to take seven years. Yehoshua was reluctant to complete the conquest of the land and divide it between the tribes. He was afraid that once he completed it, he would die. He knew his mission in life was to bring Bnei Yisroel into Eretz Yisroel and settle them there. Once his mission was completed, his life would have no further purpose. See Devorim 31:7…
It is said that "their heart was strengthened through the Lord," that is, that their heart was hardened, just as in the case of Pharaoh. There can be no doubt that this is justly done by a divine and lofty judgment, when God abandons someone and the enemy takes possession of him; the same applies in this case as in Pharaoh's. But here something else sets in motion, as it is said that their hearts were emboldened to arise against Israel in war and therefore the Israelites would not show any mercy to them. The Israelites may very well have showed them mercy, if the Canaanites had not gone to war, since God had ordered that none of the Canaanites were to be spared and yet the Israelites had spared the Gibeonites because they had represented themselves as having come from a far-off country and had made a treaty with them. But because the Israelites showed mercy to some, albeit against the command of God, it must be understood that it was said with this intention that the Canaanites waged war in such a manner so that the Israelites would not spare them, nor would the Canaanites be able to convince the Israelites to show mercy and neglect God's command. I cannot believe that this could have happened in any other way, even though Joshua was their leader and diligently obeyed all of God's commands. Nonetheless, not even Joshua would have annihilated them so quickly had they not gone against him in such a dastardly fashion. Thus it could have happened that Joshua, taking care to fulfill God's commandments, would have defeated them in a rather minimal way and they would have remained until the time when the Israelites could spare them after Joshua's death, when the Israelites did not do God's commandments with such care. For even while he was still alive the Israelites spared some Canaanites, although they subjugated them to their authority; some Canaanites, in fact, they never could conquer. But these things were not done while he was their leader but when as an old man he had retired from warfare and merely divided up the territories for the Israelites. He divided it with the intention that the Israelites would take possession of those lands that were emptied of the enemy and capture the rest by fighting, although he himself would no longer wage war. And the fact that they were able to conquer some of the Canaanites in a rather minimal way was owing to divine…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
