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Psalms 115:6

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Psalms 115:6 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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Cite this verse

Psalms 115:6 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/psalms/115/6.

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English Translation
They have ears, but they don't hear; They have noses, but they don't smell;
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    They have ears, but they don't hear; They have noses, but they don't smell;
  • King James Version Public Domain
    They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    ears to them, but they do not hear; a nose to them, but they do not smell.

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    They have ears, but they don't hear; They have noses, but they don't smell;
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    they have ears, but cannot hear; they have noses, but cannot smell;
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    they have ears, but cannot hear; they have noses, but cannot smell;
  • King James Version Public Domain
    They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    They have ears, but they hear not; Noses have they, but they smell not;
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    They have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not;
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    They haue eares and heare not: they haue noses and smelll not.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    The Lord is the keeper of little ones: I was little and he delivered me.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    Ears they have, and they hear not, A nose they have, and they smell not,
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    They have ears, and they do not hear, || They have a nose, and they do not smell,
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    they have ears, but they do not hear; they have noses, but they do not smell.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    ears to them, but they do not hear; a nose to them, but they do not smell.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    They have ears, and they hear not; a nose have they, and they smell not;
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    They have ears, but they don’t hear. They have noses, but they don’t smell.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    They have ears, but can't hear. They have noses, but can't smell.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    They have ears, but no hearing; they have noses, but no sense of smell;
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    They have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not;

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

Word by word

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יְרִיחֽוּן
rûwach
H7306
“to smell”
Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural + Suffix, n
Part of Speech
Verb
Stem
Hiphil
Form
Imperfect
Person
3rd Person
Gender
Masculine
Number
Plural
Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2131

(Hiphil) to smell, scent, perceive odour, accept - of horse - of delight (metaphorically)
  1. אָזְנַ֣יִם ʼôzen H241 “ears” Noun, Common, Feminine, Dual, Absolute
  3. וְלֹ֣א lôʼ H3808 “and · not” Conjunction + Particle, Negative
  4. יִשְׁמָ֑עוּ shâmaʻ H8085 “to hear” Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  5. אַ֥ף ʼaph H639 “nose” Particle, Accusative
  7. וְלֹ֣א lôʼ H3808 “and · not” Conjunction + Particle, Negative

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8
words
5
distinct lemmas
Wisdom
section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is יְרִיחֽוּן to smell H7306 — appearing just 11 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

יְרִיחֽוּן to smell H7306 occurs in 11 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 2 verbs
  • 1 noun
  • 2 prepositions
  • 3 particles

Verb forms

  • יִשְׁמָ֑עוּ Qal · Imperfect
  • יְרִיחֽוּן Hiphil · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • וְלֹ֣א not H3808 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

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Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

You’re reading Greek Psalm 113 (Hebrew Psalm 115). The Septuagint counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ from the Hebrew — chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse. Numbering follows Rahlfs.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Psalms 115:6 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אָזְנַ֣יִם לָ֭הֶם וְלֹ֣א יִשְׁמָ֑עוּ אַ֥ף לָ֝הֶ֗ם וְלֹ֣א יְרִיחֽוּן

They have ears, but they don't hear; They have noses, but they don't smell;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Greek Psalm 113:6 Septuagint · lemma form

ὁ ὄρος ὅτι σκιρτάω ὡσεί κριός καί ὁ βουνός ὡς ἀρνίον πρόβατον

You⌃ mountains, that you⌃ skipped like rams, and you⌃ hills, like lambs?

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Psalms 115:6 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Psa 115:6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:

Ver. 6. They have ears, but they hear not] But are as deaf as door nails to the prayers of their suppliants. The Cretans pictured their Jupiter without ears; so little hearing or help they hoped for from him. Socrates, in contempt of heathen gods, swore by an oak, a goat, a dog; as holding these better gods than those. Varro saith, they that first brought in pictures to be worshipped, Ii civitatibus suis et metum dempserunt, et errorem addiderunt, took away fear, and brought in error (Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. iv. cap. 31.)

Noses have they, but they smell not] As the painter may paint a flower with fresh colours, but not with sweet savour, with this motto, No further than colours; so the carver may draw out an image, but not make it draw its breath, with this motto, No further than fashion.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. A. Alexander on Psalms

Joseph Addison Alexander

6. (Psa 115:6) They have ears and hear not, they have a nose and smell not. The antithesis is that expressed in Psa 94:9, that God is the former of the eye and the planter of the ear in man; much more than can he see and hear himself.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

They have ears, but they hear not,.... The makers of them have taken care to place a pair of ears to their heads, but could not convey the faculty of hearing to them; so that though their priests may cry from morning to noon, as Baal's worshippers did, saying, O Baal, hear us; and even tonight, and one day and night after another, nothing is heard, Kg1 18:26. Indeed the image of Jupiter at Crete was made without ears; because it was thought unbecoming that he, who was prince and lord of all, should give ear to any (y): but the God of heaven and earth is a God hearing prayer; his ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear; his ears are always open to the cries of his people.

Noses have they, but they smell not; the incense that is set before them, nor the sacrifices offered to them, Deu 4:28, but our God smelled a sweet savour in legal sacrifices, offered up in the faith of the Messiah; and especially he smells a sweet savour in the sacrifice of his Son, and in the prayers of his saints, which are sweet odours; and particularly as they come to him perfumed with the incense of Christ's mediation, Gen 8:21.

(y) Plutarch. de Isid. & Osir. prope finem.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Treasury of David

Charles H. Spurgeon

Ver. 6. They have ears, but they hear not. The Psalmist might have pointed to the monstrous ears with which some heathen deities are disfigured, truly they have ears; but no prayer of their rotaries, though shouted by a million voices, can ever be heard by them. How can gold and silver hear, and how can a rational being address petitions to one who cannot even hear his words?

Noses have they, but they smell not. The Psalmist seems to heap together these sentences with something of the grim sardonic spirit of Elijah when he said, "Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." In sacred scorn he mocks at those who burn sweet spices, and fill their temples with clouds of smoke, all offered to an image whose nose cannot perceive the perfume. He seems to point his finger to every part of the countenance of the image, and thus pours contempt upon the noblest part of the idol, if any part of such a thing can be noble even in the least degree.

Ver. 6. They have ears, but they hear not. But are as deaf as doornails to the prayers of their suppliants. The Cretians pictured their Jupiter without ears, so little hearing or help they hoped for from him. Socrates, in contempt of heathen gods, swore by an oak, a goat, a dog; as holding these better gods than those. John Trapp,

Psalms 115:7*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Psalms, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 8 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is rûwach (“to smell”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. The word rûwach carries the sense “to smell.” How does it shape the verse?
  2. How does Genesis 8:21, which shares the word «to smell», read alongside this verse?
  3. What does the repetition of “not” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
  4. These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
  5. «יִשְׁמָ֑עוּ» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  6. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and J. A. Alexander on Psalms read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

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Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.