For it was of Yahweh 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 Yahweh commanded Moses.
"The hardening of their [the kings Joshua defeated] hearts [Joshua 11:20] was punitive. Their iniquity was now full (cf. Genesis 15:16). The long respite granted to them by a long-suffering God wrought no repentance in them." [Note: Armerding, p. 108. See also Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "Divine Hardening in the Old Testament," Bibliotheca Sacra 153:612 (October-December 1996):429-30.] 