“Do they not know that Allah knows what they conceal and what they disclose? * And among them are unlettered people who know nothing of the Scripture except its mere recitation and do nothing but speculate.”

“Do they not know that Allah knows what they conceal and what they disclose?” Although they conceal among themselves what they believe and claim that, by keeping it secret, the believers can establish no argument against them, this is an error on their part and sheer ignorance. Allah knows what they conceal and what they disclose, and He will reveal to His servants the state you are in.

“And among them”—that is, among the People of the Book—“are unlettered people,” meaning common folk who are not people of knowledge. “They know nothing of the Scripture except its mere recitation.” That is, their only share of the Book of Allah is merely to recite it. Nor do they know what was possessed by those before them, who fully understood their own condition. They have nothing but conjecture and the beliefs they adopt in blind imitation of their own scholars.

Thus, in these verses He mentions their scholars and common folk, as well as their hypocrites and those among them who were not hypocrites. Their scholars cling to the misguidance they follow, while their common folk blindly follow them and have no insight. There are therefore no grounds for you to hope in either group.