And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.
21. And at that time came Joshua, etc Of the sons of Anak we have spoken elsewhere. They were a race of giants, with the account of whose mighty stature the spies so terrified the people, that they refused to proceed into the land of Canaan.
The Canaanites' refusal to seek peace was their fatal blindness. God hardened hearts already bent on war; they chose enmity with Israel when they might have made terms, as Gibeon did. Hardness of heart is the sinner's ruin, and those left to their own stubborn pride are already marked for destruction.
AI summary
Commenting on Joshua 11:15-23
And at that time came Joshua,.... After he had made a conquest of the land, or at the time he made it, as before related: and cut off the Anakims from the mountains; whither, upon the conquest of the land, they had betaken themselves, and lived in dens and caves: these were giants, so called from Anak the father of them; though these are not...