Joshua 11:16

"So Joshua took all that land, the hill-country, and all the South, and all the land of Goshen, and the lowland, and the Arabah, and the hill-country of Israel, and the lowland of the same; from mount Halek, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and put them to death. Joshua made war a long time with all of those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: they took all in battle. For it was of Jehovah to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as Jehovah commanded Moses."

This summary of Joshua's victories is similar to that in Joshua 11:10, but this one goes much further and, "encompasses the areas conquered in the entire conquest."[26] This paragraph should certainly put an end to the impression that Joshua conquered all of Canaan in just two or three swift campaigns. However, it is clear enough that the THREE decisive campaigns recounted so far, "clearly put an end to the Canaanite political and social system."[27] The war which followed the campaigns thus far described in Joshua is described as a "long" one (Joshua 11:18); and, "the natural inference from Joshua 14:7-10, is that it lasted for SEVEN YEARS."[28] From this, it is plain that, "This and the preceding chapter contain a very condensed account of the wars of Joshua, giving particulars about leading events only."[29]

This paragraph makes pointed mission of God's hardening the hearts of the Canaanites in order to assure their destruction by Israel (Joshua 11:20). God's judicial hardening of unrepentant sinners is a phenomenon conspicuously evident in both the O.T. and the N.T. God's hardening the hearts of evil men does not exonerate or excuse their wickedness and rebellion. It just means that when a human being has morally rejected God's claim upon his life and persists in a course of wickedness, that God retaliates against that person by "hardening" or "darkening" his heart, thus enabling the wicked one to walk in the way he has chosen without further restraint. Paul mentioned this in Romans, and it appears that a course of wickedness willingly pursued by a sinner will result, even in these present times, in God's disabling, darkening, or hardening his mind (the Biblical "heart"), so that, having already chosen evil, the hardened soul is incapable of intelligent decisions involving morality, and even including many practical considerations. Even a fool, for instance, should have known better than to rush into the Red Sea following Israel's crossing, but Pharaoh, whose heart the Lord had hardened, went right in with his whole army, only to be drowned! Just so, here it seems that the "intelligent" Jabin should already have caught on from the instances of Jericho and Beth-horon that God Himself was helping Israel. Therefore, when this "intelligent" sinner formed his coalition against Israel, he merely proved what a fool he was! Just so, today, there are men with high positions of academic, political, or social power who are BLIND indeed to the simple truth of Christianity. Why? They love evil; they have already elected evil as their preferred course. And God has hardened their hearts! (See 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.)

Despite the truth that much fighting remained to be done, "The battles of Beth-horon and Merom and their aftermath were decisive, and the power of the Canaanites to resist the invaders was shattered. All organized resistance was broken down."[30]