A hard heart is associated with sensory malfunction and intellectual incomprehension. A fat heart shuts the eyes, stops the ears, darkens the mind. A hard heart is associated with not hearing, not seeing, not understanding, and not remembering. A closed heart and shut eyes go together. A proud heart goes with arrogance, with greed and strife, with "haughty eyes" that are "the lamp of the wicked," and with having forgotten God. A hard heart does not know the sacred and has no sense of awe. It is resistant to the voice and will of God, as in the stories of Pharaoh with his "hardened heart" refusing to let the Israelites leave Egypt. It lacks compassion. A hard heart goes astray, does not regard God's ways, and does not hear God's voice. With hard hearts, we have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear, minds but do not understand.
— Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew