"But King Sihon would not let us pass through his country. The LORD your God had made him stubborn and rebellious, so that we could defeat him and take his territory, which we still occupy.

The LORD has given us eyes to see with and ears to listen with.

So he told me to go and give the people this message: "No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening."

Then he said to me, "Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed."

Why do you let us stray from your ways? Why do you make us so stubborn that we turn away from you? Come back, for the sake of those who serve you, for the sake of the people who have always been yours.

I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart.

Jesus answered, "The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand.

because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.'

Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my message.

so that what the prophet Isaiah had said might come true: "Lord, who believed the message we told? To whom did the Lord reveal his power?"

"God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to heal them."

For he said, 'Go and say to this people: You will listen and listen, but not understand; you will look and look, but not see,

because this people's minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.' "

What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call.

And David says, "May they be caught and trapped at their feasts; may they fall, may they be punished!

Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers their minds.

and whose minds are in the dark. They have no part in the life that God gives, for they are completely ignorant and stubborn.

and use every kind of wicked deceit on those who will perish. They will perish because they did not welcome and love the truth so as to be saved.

The result is that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken pleasure in sin, will be condemned.

who is gentle as you correct your opponents, for it may be that God will give them the opportunity to repent and come to know the truth.

If we are tempted by such trials, we must not say, "This temptation comes from God." For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning.