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 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 F6 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 Deuteronomy 7:2 ) .