Ears in Scripture are mostly where prayer lands. “Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech,” the psalmist asks, and elsewhere begs God to “give ear unto my cry.” The same word carries a harder note. Through Isaiah and Ezekiel, God describes a people with ears that “are dull of hearing,” who hear and do not understand. In the other direction, Isaiah foretells a day when “the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,” and Jesus points to the deaf hearing as a sign of who he is. Ears in the law mark a servant’s lifelong choice to stay.
15 verses
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.
I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannimeduth, A Psalm of Asaph. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Used frequently in a figurative sense (Ps. 34:15). To “uncover the ear” is to show respect to a person (1 Sam. 20:2 marg.). To have the “ear heavy”, or to have “uncircumcised ears” (Isa. 6:10), is to be inattentive and disobedient. To have the ear “bored” through with an awl was a sign of perpetual servitude (Ex. 21:6).