To broaden out the ear (with the hand), i.e. (by implication) to listen
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The Hebrew verb azan calls someone to give ear, listen closely, or attend to speech. Moses summons heaven and earth to hear covenant teaching; prophets demand attention to God’s word; wisdom and prayer use listening as deliberate reception rather than mere sound reaching the ear.
Reader summary
Full entry for אָזַן (H238) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb azan calls someone to give ear, listen closely, or attend to speech. Moses summons heaven and earth to hear covenant teaching; prophets demand attention to God’s word; wisdom and prayer use listening as deliberate reception rather than mere sound reaching the ear.
The BSB source-word alignment has 41 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include give ear (11), listen (9), Hear (4), and give ear (3), and listen (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (15), Isaiah (8), Job (6), Deuteronomy (2).
The Hebrew verb azan calls someone to give ear, listen closely, or attend to speech. Moses summons heaven and earth to hear covenant teaching; prophets demand attention to God’s word; wisdom and prayer use listening as deliberate reception rather than mere sound reaching the ear. In Exodus, attentive hearing belongs within a covenant call that includes doing what is right, not a mechanical health formula.
The verb does not imply that every speaker deserves obedience, that hearing ability determines spiritual worth, or that a listener must accept manipulation. Responsible teaching distinguishes attention from agreement and discernment from submission. It honors Deaf and hard-of-hearing people by recognizing that biblical hearing language concerns responsive attention, not bodily superiority.
Faithful listening can include questions, verification, boundaries, accessible communication, and refusal when a human command contradicts God’s truth or endangers another person.
Azan presents listening as directed attention to testimony, instruction, warning, lament, or prayer. The addressee, speaker, covenant setting, and expected response determine whether the call is to heed, witness, discern, or receive.
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Moses summons heaven and earth as witnesses to hear covenant teaching at the threshold of Israel’s life in the land.
Saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”
Israel is called to listen carefully and do what is right within a covenant episode about testing, statutes, and God’s healing identity.
Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.
Isaiah calls heaven and earth to hear the Lord’s charge against children who have rebelled despite His care.
Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say.
The prophet intensifies his appeal with repeated commands to listen and attend before delivering an agricultural wisdom illustration.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. To listen requires active, intentional openness—physically inclining the ear toward the speaker
To listen requires active, intentional openness—physically inclining the ear toward the speaker
to broaden out the ear (with the hand), i.e. (by implication) to listen BDB: give ear Usage: give (perceive by the) ear, hear(-ken). See 239.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
אָזַן is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Azan portrays listening as moral attention, not passive acoustics. Moses and Isaiah summon creation as witness because God’s covenant word exposes rebellion and calls for faithful response. Isaiah 28 repeats the appeal to hear before offering an image whose wisdom must be understood. Exodus 15 joins careful listening with doing what is right, yet the verse belongs to a particular wilderness and covenant setting and cannot sustain a universal promise that obedience prevents all disease.
Listening to God includes receiving correction, remembering grace, and acting justly. Human speakers, however, are not God, and appeals to biblical listening do not create unlimited authority. Churches should make teaching accessible through interpretation, captions, clear language, and patient repetition; welcome questions; verify claims; and protect conscience and safety.
Deafness or hearing loss is never evidence of spiritual dullness. Survivors may need distance from a harmful speaker while still attending faithfully to God. Genuine listening bears fruit in truth, mercy, repentance, and action, not in silence enforced by power.
Deut.32.1
Azan is a Hebrew verb built from the language of the ear and means to give ear or pay attention. Imperative forms often intensify a public appeal, but response and authority must be inferred from the speech setting rather than the verb alone.
Jesus repeatedly calls those with ears to hear, linking reception with understanding and faithful response. The apostles commend testing what is heard, being quick to listen, receiving the word humbly, and refusing teaching that departs from the gospel.