Meaning
Part of Speech: Noun
Strong's Number: H241
Original Word: ’ozen
Usage Notes: "ear." The noun ’ozen 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" (Psa 10:17), "to listen" (Psa 78:1), "to stop up" (Isa 33:15), "to make deaf" (Isa 6:10), and "to tingle" (1Sam 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" (Psa 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" (1Sam 8:21); here the niv renders "in the ears of" idiomatically as "before." The Lord "pierces" (i.e., opens up) ears (Psa 40:6), implants ears (Psa 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 (Psa 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…" (1Sam 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."
