Definition

to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.)

Etymology

a primitive root;

Where the KJV renders it

• attentively
• call (gather) together
• carefully
• certainly
• consent
• consider
• be content
• declare
• diligently
• discern
• give ear
• (cause to
• let
• make to) hear(-ken
• tell)
• indeed
• listen
• make (a) noise
• (be) obedient
• obey
• perceive
• (make a) proclaim(-ation)
• publish
• regard
• report
• shew (forth)
• (make a) sound
• surely
• tell
• understand
• whosoever (heareth)
• witness

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.