He answers (v. 20): “For it had been the sentence of the Lord, that their hearts should be hardened, and [that] they should fight against Israel, and fall, and not merit any clemency, and perish.” Concerning which words Abulensis institutes 70 questions — and indeed quite long ones, from 13 up to 84 exclusive; but St. Augustine [only] one, and that very brief, when he bids his Reader go to those [things] which were said about the hardening of Pharaoh. For, the words of this passage being cited (q. 18) from the 70’s version, “Thus,” he says, “this was said, as of Pharaoh; which [that it] is done justly, by a divine and deep judgment, is by no means to be doubted, when God forsakes, and the enemy possesses. Which is to be taken as [it is] there too.” I would use this manner of answering even now, did not Calvin’s malice extort something. For here (fol. 47, 48) he holds [that] the Canaanites [were] impelled and compelled by God to receive the Israelites with hostile arms, and sometimes, while [Israel was] at rest, to provoke [them] of their own accord — and that, so that they might be destroyed, because he had destined them to destruction. “God,” he says, “who had commanded that pardon be denied to them (the Canaanites), the same impelled them to blind fury, that they might give no place to mercy.” And afterward: “God commanded Moses that the nations should be destroyed, which he had destined to destruction, and therefore made the way plain by his decree, when he hardened the reprobate. And so, in the first degree is placed the will of God, that it may stand out as the chief cause.” And at length afterward: “To this end God hardens them, that they may turn mercy away from themselves; whence that hardness is also called his [God’s] work, because it establishes the effect of his counsel.” Now if [those] try to obscure with their fogs a matter so lucid — [they] who feign [that] God looks on from heaven [at] what pleases men, and do not endure [the idea] that the hearts of men are bridled by his secret instinct — what else will they betray but their own impudence? They concede only that God permits; but in this way they suspend his counsel upon the good-pleasure of men. But what [does] the spirit [of scripture say]? That the hardening is from God, that he may cast headlong those whom he wills to destroy.
But I, first, concerning the text, advise [that], for that our [Latin] “For it had been the sentence of the Lord, that their hearts should be hardened,” in the Hebrew [it] is “because it was from the Lord, to harden their hearts,” or “theirs.” For the Hebrew phrase can be rendered in two ways. First, actively — and that again in two ways. First thus, [that] “he [God] should harden their hearts”; but “it was from God” would less rightly precede — yet it would have sufficed [to say], “because God hardened their hearts.” Secondly, [that] “he [the Canaanite] should harden his own heart” — because in the Hebrew it is an active infinitive of the conjugation “Piel,” namely “lechazzek libbam” [le-ḥazzeq libbam]. Secondly, passively, [that] “their hearts should be hardened.” For this manner of speaking is always true, whoever be the hardener of their hearts — whether [it be] the very [men] whose hearts they are, or some other, or both. For from whosesoever action, at length, the passion [being-acted-upon] arises. And therefore this latter manner of rendering is here somewhat broader, and answers to every author of this hardening. Whence it pleased both our Interpreter, and the 70 themselves — as their [version] indeed has [it], in St. Augustine (in the cited question), this version: “Because it was done, through the Lord, that their heart should be strengthened, so that they should go to meet Israel in battle, that they might be exterminated, so that mercy should not be given them, but that they should be exterminated, as the Lord says to Moses.” Yet in the 70 themselves, the verb κατισχῦσαι [katischysai, “to strengthen”] could be taken actively.
But concerning the matter [itself], I say, first: [that] the Canaanites were hostile to the Israelites of their own accord and free will. Secondly: [that] God willed [that] they be destroyed by the Israelites. Thirdly: [that], if they had willed to repent, there could have been place for mercy for them — as was said above in the case of Rahab and the Gabaonites. Fourthly: [that] they themselves hardened and obstinated themselves, as the active phrase here (of which a little before) indicates. Fifthly: [that] the true and antecedent cause of this hardening and obstinacy is not the active and efficacious will of God, as Calvin holds, but the preceding sins of the Canaanites, concerning which [in] Gen. 15:16. For [he] who, by sinning, has deserted God, deserves indeed to be, in turn, deserted by God — as St. Augustine teaches (in the book On the Good of Perseverance, ch. 6) and elsewhere; and [it] is clearly gathered from many [places] of the Scriptures. Rom. 1: “They changed the truth of God into a lie,” etc.; “therefore God delivered them up to passions of ignominy.” And afterward: “as they did not approve to have God in [their] knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense.” 2 Thess. 2: “Because they received not the charity of the truth, that they might be saved, therefore God sends them the working of error.” And someone might suspect [that] these antecedent sins too seem, to Calvin, the primary cause of the hardening — because, when he had said [that] “the will of God is to be placed in the first degree, so that it stand out as the chief cause,” he immediately subjoined: “For because their iniquity had come to the full, he resolved to destroy them.” As if their iniquity were prior to the divine will of destroying them — the heap of sins prior to the hardening. And if Calvin meant this, he would indeed speak truly; but then, in the hardening of men, the will of God would not hold the first degree, but the forgoing depravity of the men themselves; nor should the chief cause of the hardening be called that same will of God, but the wicked and sinning will of men. In our Canaanites, therefore, this is the order. First: by their own choice they sinned gravely. Secondly: God therefore willed to punish them, and to remove [them] utterly. Thirdly: that this might be done, he gave a precept to Moses. Fourthly: Moses gave the same to Joshua. Fifthly: When [Israel] entered here into their lands, [Israel] entered with so many and so great miracles and portents, that they [the Canaanites] could — and ought to — have acknowledged the power and divinity of God, and deservedly repented. Sixthly: They of their own accord hardened and obdurated their own minds. Seventhly: They of their own accord even waged war upon the Israelites.
(col. 1075)
Eighthly: [That] the [Canaanites] did this is said to have been from God: because he permitted them to do [it], and did not take from them the human liberty of [free] choice, nor compel them — like cattle — to will otherwise. And so the penalty, destined and appointed against them by God, was mandated for execution through Joshua. Of which penalty, indeed, the beginning and cause was, first, their own sin and iniquity; then, finally, their contumacy and obstinacy against the Israelites and God. Yet, that all these [things] may be more manifest, I will repeat a few [points] from that disputation about Pharaoh, in Exodus.