Deuteronomy 29:4 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

This verse comes in by way of correction or exception to the foregoing clause in this manner, I said indeed, Ye have seen, &c., Deuteronomy 29:2, and thine eyes have seen, &c., but I must recall my words, for in truth you have not seen them; in seeing you have not seen, and perceiving you have not perceived them: you have perceived and seen them with the eyes of your body, but not with your minds and hearts; you have not seen them to any purpose; you have not yet learned rightly to understand the word and works of God, so as to know them for your good, and to make a right use of them, and to comply with them; which he expresseth thus, the Lord hath not given you, & c., not to excuse their wickedness, but partly to direct them what course to take, and to whom they must have recourse for the amending of their former errors, and for a good understanding and improvement of God's works; and partly to aggravate their sin, and to intimate that although the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, and the understanding heart, be the workmanship of God, Proverbs 20:12, and the effects of his special grace, Deuteronomy 30:6 Jeremiah 31:33, Jeremiah 32:39, &c., yet their want of this grace was their own fault, and the just punishment of their former sins; their present case being like theirs in Isaiah's time, who first shut their eyes and ears that they might not see and hear, and would not understand, and then by the tremendous, but righteous judgment of God, had their hearts made fat, and their eyes and ears closed, that they should not be able to see, and hear, and understand, as is manifest from the history of their carriage in the wilderness.