Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

’âzan - אָזַן (Strong's #238)
Hear, give ear

’âzan "hear, give ear" אָזַן (Strong's #238)

"They have ears, but they hear not" (Psalm 135:17, JPS)

The word אָזַן ’âzan "to hear" (Strong's #238, x41) appears to come from a root that may mean to be sharp or pointed, as animal's ears often are, or denominatively from the noun אזֶן ’ôzen "ear" (Strong's #241, x187). Psalm 135:17 combines the noun with the verb to hear: "They have ears, but they hear not".

Occurring only in the Hiphil causative the verb can mean to "sharpen the ears" or "prick up the ears" enabling better hearing, i.e., to listen actively rather than merely hear. This then becomes similar to שָׁמַע shâma‘ (Strong's #8085, x1160) "hear, heed, understand, obey".

In Exodus 15:26 it is clearly meant to mean "hearken, heed, obey" as it is paralleled four ways with first שָׁמַע shâma‘ and then other verbs of oebedience:

"If thou wilt diligently hearken שָׁמַע shâma‘ to the voice of the LORD thy God,
and wilt do עָשָׂה ‘âsâh (Strong's #6213, x2633) that which is right in his sight,
and wilt give ear אָזַן ’âzan to his commandments,
and keep שָׁמַר shâmar (Strong's #8104, x468) all his statutes..." (Exodus 15:26, KJV)

In its first use, "...hear my voice...listen to my speech" (Genesis 4:23, NKJ), it is again paired with שָׁמַע shâma‘, indeed the verbs could be swapped and the meaning remain the same. In fact, the pair of verbs occur together in parallelism 24 out of אָזַן ’âzan's 41 instances.

Similarly, it is clearly a parallel term to קָשַׁב qâshab (Strong's #7181, x46), to "hearken, pay attention". This is evidenced in 7 verses, particularly Isaiah 28:23: "Give ye ear, and hear my voice; attend, and hear my speech", where in each case "hear" is שָׁמַע shâma‘ which is paired with each of אָזַן ’âzan and קָשַׁב qâshab in turn, but both preceding שָׁמַע shâma‘ as if logically the attentive listening leads on to the active hearing and obedience. Cf. Isaiah 51:4, "Pay attention to Me, My People, give ear to Me, My Nation".

Hosea has it in threefold parallelism with שָׁמַע shâma‘ indicating, as earlier, that not always is a distinction, progression or difference of degree to be sought out from the three verbs:

"Hear שָׁמַע shâma‘ this, O ye priests,
and attend קָשַׁב qâshab, ye house of Israel,
and give ear אָזַן ’âzan, O house of the king..." (Hosea 5:1, JPS)

Many of the remaining verses are pleas to God in the Psalms as prayers to be heard, often translated as, "Give ear O Lord". It is primarily used in poetic books and passages. This is one of the beautiful aspects of Hebrew poetic language and parallelism, synonyms are used quite flexibly and exegesis misses the point when it seeks out fifty shades of meaning and detail from words that are meant to be taken generally and less specifically, with an emphasis on their similarities and not their differences.

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