Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.
Parallel translations
- WEB But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
- KJV Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
- NKJV Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.
- NASB Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.
- NLT But to this day the Lord has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Despite all they saw, God had not yet given them hearts to truly understand. Spiritual insight is a divine gift, not a human achievement.
Overview
This profound verse acknowledges that genuine understanding, perceiving eyes, and hearing ears come from God himself. Israel's persistent dullness reveals the human heart's need for inward renewal beyond outward witness. It anticipates the new-covenant promise of a transformed heart, fulfilled when Christ opens blind eyes and the Spirit grants understanding to those who believe.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Isa 6:9–10And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
- Eph 4:18They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.
- Prov 20:12Ears that hear and eyes that see—the LORD has made them both.
- John 8:43Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.
- Matt 13:11–15He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
- Isa 63:17Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
- Rom 11:7–10What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
- 2 Cor 3:15And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
- Ezek 36:26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
- Jas 1:13–17When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
- John 12:38–40This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
- Acts 28:26–27‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
- 2 Th 2:10–12and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
- Deut 2:30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as is the case this day.
- 2 Tim 2:25He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 29:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.