Ear

The ear figures in scripture both as a literal organ and as the standard image for receptive attention. It is marked in ritual at the moments of consecration and cleansing, bored as the sign of lifelong servitude, addressed in prayer as the channel by which Yahweh hears his people, and named in the prophets as the place where rebellion or attentiveness is finally located. Its physical decline tracks the loss of life's pleasures; its spiritual stopping tracks judgment; its opening tracks the willingness to be taught.

The Right Ear in Priestly Consecration

When Aaron and his sons are set apart, the blood of the consecration ram is applied at three points on the body — the tip of the right ear, the right thumb, and the great toe of the right foot. Moses receives the instruction at Sinai: "Then you will kill the ram, and take of its blood, and put it on the tip of Aaron's and his sons' right ear, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood on the altar round about" (Ex 29:20). The ordination at Leviticus 8 carries the rite out: "And he slew it; and Moses took of its blood, and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot" (Le 8:23). The ear stands at the head of the three points, marked first.

The Right Ear in the Cleansing of the Leper

The same three-point rite reappears in the law for the leper restored to the camp, but here applied to the cleansed person rather than the priest. Blood comes first: "and the priest will take of the blood of the trespass-offering, and the priest will put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot" (Le 14:14). Then oil is laid over the blood: "and of the rest of the oil that is in his hand will the priest put on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass-offering" (Le 14:17). The poorer leper, whose offering is reduced, receives the same treatment in full: blood (Le 14:25) and then oil "on the place of the blood of the trespass-offering" (Le 14:28). The right ear is the priestly mark and the cleansing mark alike.

The Bored Ear of the Permanent Slave

Exodus 21 fixes a different ritual upon the ear — not blood, but an awl. A Hebrew slave whose seventh year has come is free to leave; if he chooses to stay, the choice is made permanent at the doorpost: "But if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my sons; I will not go out free: then his master will bring him to the gods, and will bring him to the door, or to the door-post; and his master will bore his ear through with an awl; and he will serve him forever" (Ex 21:5-6). The pierced ear is a visible, lifelong sign of voluntary servitude. The Psalter takes the same image up obliquely — "Sacrifice and offering you have no delight in; My ears you have opened: Burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required" (Ps 40:6) — placing the opened ear over against the sacrificial system.

Yahweh's Ear: The Anthropomorphic Petition

The Psalter and the prophets address Yahweh as one who has an ear, who can be inclined toward a cry, and whose attention is the difference between answer and silence. The petition is direct: "I have called on you, for you will answer me, O God: Incline your ear to me, [and] hear my speech" (Ps 17:6); "Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and give ear to my cry; Don't hold your peace at my tears" (Ps 39:12); "I will cry to God with my voice, Even to God with my voice; and he will give ear to me" (Ps 77:1); "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who sit [above] the cherubim, shine forth" (Ps 80:1); "O Yahweh God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah" (Ps 84:8).

The same image undergirds confidence as much as plea. In David's deliverance song, "In my distress I called on Yahweh; Yes, I called to my God: And he heard my voice out of his temple, And my cry [came] into his ears" (2Sa 22:7). The wisdom literature builds the principle into a creation-argument: "He who planted the ear, will he not hear? He who formed the eye, will he not see?" (Ps 94:9). The righteous have a hearing audience: "The eyes of Yahweh are toward the righteous, And his ears are [open] to their cry" (Ps 34:15); "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And his ears to their supplication: But the face of the Lord is on those who do evil" (1Pe 3:12). The cries of the defrauded reapers reach the same audience: "the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of Yahweh of hosts" (Jas 5:4).

Isaiah confronts the suspicion that distance has set in: "Look, Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear" (Is 59:1). The ear of God is not deafened; the answer often runs ahead of the petition: "And it will come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Is 65:24).

The Human Ear and Its Limits

The literal ear has its own limits. Barzillai declines David's invitation back to court because age has dulled it: "I am this day 80 years old: can I discern between good and bad? Can your slave taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear anymore the voice of singing men and singing women?" (2Sa 19:35). Ecclesiastes places the same decline among the signs of old age: "and the doors will be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one will rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music will be brought low" (Ec 12:4). Where the ear is broken altogether, the law protects it from ridicule: "You will not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you will fear your God: I am Yahweh" (Le 19:14).

Jesus' Galilean ministry meets the deaf body directly. A man with an impediment is brought to him: "And they bring to him one who was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they urge him to lay his hand on him" (Mr 7:32). At another point a "mute and deaf spirit" is exorcised: "And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter into him no more" (Mr 9:25).

Hearing as Wisdom

In the wisdom books the ear is the organ of teachability. "Blessed is [the] man who hears me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors" (Pr 8:34). Reproof, willingly heard, secures one's place among the wise: "The ear that harkens to the reproof of life Will reside among the wise" (Pr 15:31). The instruction is to bend the ear toward speech and slow the tongue: "Be swift to give ear, And in patience of spirit return an answer" (Sir 5:11); "If you will bring yourself to hear, And incline your ear, you will be instructed" (Sir 6:33); "Be pleased to hear all talk; And do not let a proverb of understanding get away from you" (Sir 6:35). The same posture carries into the New Testament epistle: "But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (Jas 1:19). Even worship is described in these terms: "to draw near to hear is better than to give the sacrifice of fools" (Ec 5:1).

The Heavy and Uncircumcised Ear

The prophets locate Israel's rebellion in the ear. Isaiah is sent with a commission whose effect is to harden hearing: "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; or else they will see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed" (Is 6:10). Jeremiah finds the same condition: "To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Look, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: look, the word of Yahweh has become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it" (Je 6:10). Ezekiel speaks among "a rebellious house, that have eyes to see, and don't see, that have ears to hear, and don't hear" (Eze 12:2), and finds the prophet himself listened to as entertainment rather than command: "you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a beautiful voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don't do them" (Eze 33:32). Zechariah summarizes the response of the fathers: "But they refused to listen, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear" (Zec 7:11). Habakkuk, by contrast, hears and is shaken: "O Yahweh, I have heard the report of you, and am afraid: O Yahweh, revive your work in the midst of the years" (Hab 3:2).

The Hearing Heart and the Self-Deceived Hearer

The Gospels and the epistles carry the same distinction into the church. The good ground is "an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit with patience" (Lu 8:15). Where Moses and the prophets are not heard, signs will not persuade either: "If they don't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one would rise from the dead" (Lu 16:31). James warns the man whose hearing does not become doing: "if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror: for he looks at himself, and goes away, and right away forgets what manner of man he was" (Jas 1:23-24). Paul foresees a turning of the ear toward what it prefers: "and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables" (2Ti 4:4). Over against this, the seven letters of Revelation give the standard summons in its standard form: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt of the second death" (Re 2:11).