Deuteronomy 29:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 4. Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive— The meaning of this complaint is, not that God was wanting in his assistance, much less that he actually operated upon them to make them stupid and ungrateful; but that, through their own obstinacy and perverseness, the means which God had been pleased to make use of to reclaim them had always proved ineffectual; and all the great and marvellous things that he had done for them in Egypt and in the wilderness had not prevailed with them to repent. See parallel expressions, Matthew 13:11; Matthew 13:58. Maimonides therefore understands these words to import, that they had not disposed themselves to receive grace from God. God had done great things for them; but they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit, Isaiah 63:9-10. Le Clerc reads the words interrogatively: Hath not God given you an heart to perceive? As much as to say, that God had given them understanding, but they had not made a right use of it: or, as Jeremiah expresses it, ch. Deuteronomy 5:21 they have eyes, but see not; and ears, but hear not.