'Ôzen (אֹזֶן, Strong's #241), “ear.” The noun 'ôzen is common to Semitic languages. It appears 187 times in the Old Testament, mainly to designate a part of the body. The first occurrence is in Gen. 20:8: “Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.”The “ear” was the place for earrings (Gen. 35:4); thus it might be pierced as a token of perpetual servitude (Exod. 21:6).Several verbs are found in relation to “ear”: “to inform” (Ezek. 24:26), “to pay attention” (Ps. 10:17), “to listen” (Ps. 78:1), “to stop up” (Isa. 33:15), “to make deaf” (Isa. 6:10), and “to tingle” (1 Sam. 3:11).
Animals are also said to have “ears” (Prov. 26:17). God is idiomatically said to have “ears”: “Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me; … when I call answer me speedily” (Ps. 102:2). In this particular passage, the NEB prefers a more idiomatic rendering: “Hide not thy face from me when I am in distress. Listen to my prayer and, when I call, answer me soon.” Elsewhere, the KJV reads: “And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord” (1 Sam. 8:21); here the NIV renders “in the ears of” idiomatically as “before.” The Lord “pierces” (i.e., opens up) ears (Ps. 40:6), implants ears (Ps. 94:9), and fashions ears (Prov. 20:12) in order to allow man to receive direction from his Creator. As the Creator, He also is able to hear and respond to the needs of His people (Ps. 94:9). The Lord reveals His words to the “ears” of his prophets: “Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying …” (1 Sam. 9:15). Since the Israelites had not responded to the prophetic message, they had made themselves spiritually deaf: “Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not” (Jer. 5:21). After the Exile, the people of God were to experience a spiritual awakening and new sensitivity to God’s Word which, in the words of Isaiah, is to be compared to the opening of the “ears” (Isa. 50:5).
The KJV gives these renderings: “ear; audience; hearing.”