Deuteronomy 2

Deuteronomy 2:30

Augustine of Hippo: But Seón, king of Esebón, did not want to let us pass through there, because the Lord our God had hardened his spirit and obstinately his heart to deliver it into your hands as it happens today. Moses, in saying these words while speaking to the people, remembers something similar to what was said in the Exodus: I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 10,1). And it is read in the psalms. Change their hearts so that they hate their people (Ps. 104,25). The cause of this hardening is not hidden here, because it is said: To deliver it into your hands as it happens today; This means, so you beat him. And this would not happen if the person did not resist, and the person would not resist if he did not have a hardened heart. If we investigate the justice of this fact, we would have to say that the judgments of God are inscrutable (Cf Rm 11,33). But in God there is no iniquity4. For the rest, it must be noted that it can be said that the heart is obstinate even in evil. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 2 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)