Word study
Hear
8 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: heard, hear, hearing, hears. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “hear” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁמַע shâmaheartranslated this way 620 times of its 1,132 uses · Strong’s H8085Verb · Translated: heard 311, hear 253, listen 218, obey 60Full study and all 1,063 verses →
Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Exodus 2:15 When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.
- אֹזֶן ôzeneartranslated this way 37 times of its 151 uses · Strong’s H241Noun · Translated: ears 54, ear 38, hearing 31, heard 6Full study and all 146 verses →
Genesis 23:16 Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.
- שְׁמַע shemaheartranslated this way 8 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H8086Verb · Translated: heard 4, hear 3, hears 1, obey 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Daniel 3:5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
Daniel 3:7 Therefore, as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, the people of every nation and language would fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
- אָזַן âzangive ear, listen, heartranslated this way 6 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s H238Verb · Translated: give ear 14, listen 13, Hear 6, pay attention 3Full study and all 41 verses →
Psalm 77:1 For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. I cried out to God; I cried aloud to God to hear me.
Psalm 80:1 For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm of Asaph. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock; You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth
- עָתַר âtharpray, supplicafetranslated this way 2 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H6279Verb · Translated: pray 6, prayed 3, answered their prayers 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Genesis 25:21 Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Isaiah 19:22 And the LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; He will strike them but heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and He will hear their prayers and heal them.
- שֵׁמַע shêmasoundtranslated this way 2 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H8088Noun · Translated: report 5, fame 4, news 3, hear 2Full study and all 17 verses →
Psalm 18:44 When they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cower before me.
Hosea 7:12 As they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the air. I will chastise them when I hear them flocking together.
- קוֹל qôlsound, voicetranslated this way 2 times of its 425 uses · Strong’s H6963Noun · Translated: voice 197, sound 63, voices 22, thunder 11Full study and all 378 verses →
Isaiah 66:6 Hear the uproar from the city; listen to the voice from the temple! It is the voice of the LORD, repaying His enemies what they deserve!
Jeremiah 25:36 Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for the LORD is destroying their pasture.
- קָשַׁב qâshabincline, attendtranslated this way 2 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s H7181Verb · Translated: listen 12, pay attention 10, Attend 6, incline 2Full study and all 45 verses →
Jeremiah 6:10 To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the LORD has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.
Daniel 9:19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀκούω akoúōI hear, listentranslated this way 338 times of its 422 uses · Strong’s G191Verb · Translated: heard 192, hear 98, listen 37, hearing 21Full study and all 394 verses →
Matthew 2:3 When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
Mark 2:17 On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- ἀκοή akoḗhearing, faculty of hearing, eartranslated this way 11 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s G189Noun · Translated: hearing 6, ears 4, heard 3, rumors 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Luke 7:1 When Jesus had concluded His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.
Acts 28:26 ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
- εἰσακούω eisakoúōI hear, listen totranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1522Verb · Translated: heard 4, they will 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.
Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.