What Does Joshua 11:20 Mean?
For it was from the LORD to make their hearts heavy, so that they would come against Israel in battle, that he might devote them to destruction, and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The LORD makes their resolve firm for battle, and that very strength carries them into the destruction he commands.
THE MEANING
The verse puts a severe claim before you: the LORD makes their hearts firm toward battle, so they meet Israel, are destroyed, and receive no favor. Their resistance does not stand outside the divine purpose described here; it becomes the means by which the commanded destruction is carried out. The text names that destruction directly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that strength of resolve proves divine favor does not hold here: their resolve is strengthened as they move toward destruction without favor.
THE ROOT
לְחַזֵּק
leḥazzēq
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥ-z-q
Be strong; make firm or strengthen.
“make their hearts heavy” in this verse is leḥazzēq. The word rendered “harden” carries the root’s force of making firm: their hearts are strengthened into fixed resistance. The same root can mean being strong or making strong, so strength itself becomes the means by which they enter battle and meet destruction.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong, grow firm, or prevail.
חָזַק
The root includes the state of strength that their hearts are made to take on.
ḥizzēq: Strengthen or make firm.
חִזֵּק
This form makes explicit the action in the verse: their resolve is made firm.
תְּחִנָּה
teḥinnah
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
Show favor or give graciously.
The word rendered “favour” is related to both favor given and a plea for favor. Their having no favor means there is no gracious response or relief from the destruction described.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor.
חֵן
This is favor as the kindness or acceptance that is absent from the verse.
ḥānan: Show favor or act graciously.
חָנַן
The verb names the gracious response that is withheld.
teḥinnah: A plea for favor; supplication.
תְּחִנָּה
This branch lets “no favour” carry the sense that no plea brings relief.
וְהַחֲרִימָם
wehaḥărîmām
GROWS FROM
חרם
ḥ-r-m
Place under a ban; devote to destruction.
“devote them to destruction” in this verse is wehaḥărîmām. The verb names destruction under the ban, and the verse makes its force unmistakable: they are destroyed utterly as commanded. This root presents the destruction as total, not as a defeat followed by reprieve.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāram: Place under a ban or devote to destruction.
חָרַם
This is the action expressed in the verse’s “destroy utterly.”
ḥērem: A thing devoted under a ban.
חֵרֶם
This related form shows the totality of what is placed under the ban.
THE PATTERN
In divine judgment, resistance can be made firm and become the route by which the resistant meet destruction.
And the LORD gripped the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not hear and respond to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses.Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and smear over their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and discern with their heart, and turn back, and be healed.So then he shows faithful love to whom he wills, and whom he wills, he hardens.THE THREAD
But the LORD gripped Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.“Hardened” here comes from the same Hebrew root, חזק (ḥ-z-q), as the word in Joshua: to make firm or strengthen. In both verses, the strengthened heart is fixed in resistance, and that resistance carries the judgment forward.
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