אָזַן
to hear
‘to hear’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 12 distinct
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 16 times (39%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 11 times (27%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 3 times (7%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (5%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Plural 2 times (5%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (2%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (2%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (2%)
+4 more forms (4 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 41 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H238 appears — 41 distinct verses across 14 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis 1 verse
Exodus 1 verse
Numbers 1 verse
Deuteronomy 2 verses
Judges 1 verse
2 Chronicles 1 verse
Nehemiah 1 verse
Job 6 verses
- Job 9:16 יַאֲזִ֥ין Hiphil impf 3ms If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.
- Job 32:11 אָ֭זִין Hiphil impf 1cs "Behold, I waited for your words, And I listened for your reasoning, While you searched out what to say.
- Job 33:1 הַאֲזִֽינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h "However, Job, Please hear my speech, And listen to all my words.
- Job 34:2 הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ Hiphil impv 2mp "Hear my words, you wise men; Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.
- Job 34:16 הַ֝אֲזִ֗ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h "If now you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the voice of my words.
- Job 37:14 הַאֲזִ֣ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h "Listen to this, Job: Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
Psalms 15 verses
- Psalms 5:1 הַאֲזִ֥ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Give ear to my words, Yahweh. Consider my meditation.
- Psalms 17:1 הַאֲזִ֥ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Hear, Yahweh, my righteous plea; Give ear to my prayer, that doesn't go out of deceitful lips.
- Psalms 39:12 הַאֲזִינָ/ה֮ Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h "Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don't be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, A foreigner, as all my fathers were.
- Psalms 49:1 הַ֝אֲזִ֗ינוּ Hiphil impv 2mp Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,
- Psalms 54:2 הַ֝אֲזִ֗ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth.
- Psalms 55:1 הַאֲזִ֣ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Listen to my prayer, God. Don't hide yourself from my supplication.
- Psalms 77:1 וְ/הַאֲזִ֥ין conj + Hiphil wpf 3ms My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, And for him to listen to me.
- Psalms 78:1 הַאֲזִ֣ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Hear my law, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
- Psalms 80:1 הַאֲזִ֗ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock, You who sit above the cherubim, shine forth.
- Psalms 84:8 הַאֲזִ֨ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Yahweh, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Listen, God of Jacob. Selah.
- Psalms 86:6 הַאֲזִ֣ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Hear, Yahweh, my prayer. Listen to the voice of my petitions.
- Psalms 135:17 יַאֲזִ֑ינוּ Hiphil impf 3mp They have ears, but they can't hear; Neither is there any breath in their mouths.
- Psalms 140:6 הַאֲזִ֥ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h I said to Yahweh, "You are my God." Listen to the cry of my petitions, Yahweh.
- Psalms 141:1 הַאֲזִ֥ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Yahweh, I have called on you. Come to me quickly! Listen to my voice when I call to you.
- Psalms 143:1 הַאֲזִ֥ינָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.
Proverbs 1 verse
Isaiah 8 verses
- Isaiah 1:2 וְ/הַאֲזִ֣ינִי conj + Hiphil impv 2fs Hear, heavens, And listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against me.
- Isaiah 1:10 הַאֲזִ֛ינוּ Hiphil impv 2mp Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Isaiah 8:9 וְ/הַֽאֲזִ֔ינוּ conj + Hiphil impv 2mp Make an uproar, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! And give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces! Gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces!
- Isaiah 28:23 הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ Hiphil impv 2mp Give you ear, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.
- Isaiah 32:9 הַאְזֵ֖נָּה Hiphil impv 2fp Rise up, you women who are at ease, [and] hear my voice; you careless daughters, give ear to my speech.
- Isaiah 42:23 יַאֲזִ֣ין Hiphil impf 3ms Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will listen and hear for the time to come?
- Isaiah 51:4 הַאֲזִ֑ינוּ Hiphil impv 2mp Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.
- Isaiah 64:4 הֶאֱזִ֑ינוּ Hiphil pf 3cp For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him.
Jeremiah 1 verse
Hosea 1 verse
Joel 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“to hear” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb אזן (ʼâzan). Its English rendering has broadened — “give ear” classically, “listen” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 41 verses — moderately common. More than a third of its appearances fall in Psalms. Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H238 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 41
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 41 distinct verses.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #891
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 891 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 41 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 41 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 24 verses · 59%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 12 verses · 29%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 5 verses · 12%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Give ear 21×, Hearken 5×, Give ye ear 2×
- American Standard Version: Give ear 17×, Hearken 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: Give ear 14×, Listen 11×, Hear 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Listen 18×, Give ear 9×, Give ear to 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H238 across 41 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H238 across 41 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H238 across 41 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H238 across 46 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 2 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. hear, perceive by the ear
- 2. of God, listening (with favour) to prayer
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
[ אָזַן ] 42 vb. denom. Hiph. give ear, listen, hear
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אֲזַן
- Targ. Is. XXXIII, 4, third pers. pl. of אֲזָא, v. אֲזִי
אֹזֶן
- to be pointed, cut, cmp. חז, גז. v. אוּדְנָא)
- 1. ear. B. Kam. 79ᵇ א׳ של מַטָּה human ear, opp. Divine perception. Y. Sabb. I, 3ᵇ top; a. fr.
- 2. handle. Cant. R. beg. ולא הי׳ לה א׳ וכ׳ but had no handle and could not be carried; a. fr.—Du. אָזְנַיִם 1) ears. Lev. R. s. 32, beg. א׳ לדרך the road has ears (be on your guard in speaking); a. fr.—2) handles. Kel. IV, 3, v. גיסטרא; a. fr.
- 3. אָזְנַיִם or בנות א׳ swollen glands of the throat (Rashi). Ab. Zar. 28ᵇ א׳; Y. ib. II, 40ᵈ top; Y. Sabb. XIV, 14ᵈ top בנות א׳.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 27 distinct written forms H238 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| הַאֲזִ֥ינָ/ה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Numbers 23:18 | 6 |
| הַאֲזִ֣ינָ/ה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 37:14 | 4 |
| הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Deuteronomy 32:1 | 3 |
| הֶאֱזִ֑ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Isaiah 64:4 | 2 |
| הַ֝אֲזִ֗ינָ/ה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 34:16 | 2 |
| הַאְזֵ֖נָּה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Plural | Genesis 4:23 | 2 |
| וְ/הַֽאֲזִ֔ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Isaiah 8:9 | 2 |
| אָ֭זִין | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 32:11 | 1 |
| הֶאֱזִ֖ין | Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Deuteronomy 1:45 | 1 |
| הֶאֱזִֽינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | 2 Chronicles 24:19 | 1 |
| הַ֝אֲזִ֗ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Psalms 49:1 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִ֑ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Isaiah 51:4 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִ֔ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Hosea 5:1 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִ֖ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Judges 5:3 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִ֗ינָ/ה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 80:1 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִ֛ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Isaiah 1:10 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִ֨ינָ/ה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 84:8 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִֽינָ/ה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 33:1 | 1 |
| הַאֲזִינָ/ה֮ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 39:12 | 1 |
| וְ/הַאֲזִ֖ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Jeremiah 13:15 | 1 |
| וְ/הַאֲזִ֣ינִי | Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular | Isaiah 1:2 | 1 |
| וְ/הַאֲזִ֥ין | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 77:1 | 1 |
| וְ/הַֽאֲזַנְתָּ֙ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Exodus 15:26 | 1 |
| יַאֲזִ֑ינוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Psalms 135:17 | 1 |
| יַאֲזִ֣ין | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 42:23 | 1 |
| יַאֲזִ֥ין | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 9:16 | 1 |
| מֵ֝זִין | Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 17:4 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H238, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- אזן שארה ʼUzzên Sheʼĕrâh H242 Uzzen Sherah
- אזנות תבור ʼAznôwth Tâbôwr H243 Aznoth Tabor
- אזניה ʼĂzanyâh H245 Azaniah
- יאזניה Yaʼăzanyâh H2970 Jaazaniah
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 4 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 40 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 41 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 4:23
- Exodus 15:26
- Numbers 23:18
- Deuteronomy 1:45
- Judges 5:3
- 2 Chronicles 24:19
- Job 9:16
- Psalms 5:1
- Proverbs 17:4
- Isaiah 1:2
- Jeremiah 13:15
- Hosea 5:1
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
