What Does Proverbs 28:9 Mean?
Whoever turns his ear away from hearing and responding to the instruction, even his prayer is an abomination.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.THE KEY
Prayer does not float free of the direction the ear rejects; the refusal reaches into the prayer itself.
THE MEANING
Turning away from instruction while praying does not leave the prayer untouched. The verse names the resulting split as abomination: the ear’s refusal reaches the words addressed to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that prayer can remain wholly separate from a refusal to hear instruction is undone here.
THE ROOT
מִשְּׁמֹעַ
mishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
To hear, listen, and receive what is said; in responsive contexts, to heed.
“hearing and responding” in this verse is mishmoa. The Hebrew word שמע (shama, hearing that receives and responds) makes this more than a matter of sound reaching the ear. Turning the ear away withdraws from the response carried in hearing.
ALSO GROWS
shomea: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
This form keeps the focus on the person receiving what is said, the posture the verse describes being refused.
shemuah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report must be received to become known; the verse’s image is of refusing that reception.
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
yarah
To direct, teach, or point out; related verbal forms also carry the sense of casting or shooting.
תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction) carries a sense of direction beneath the familiar English word “law.” The ear turns from guidance that could shape the very prayer being offered.
ALSO GROWS
moreh: Teacher or instructor.
מוֹרֶה
The teacher directs and gives instruction, showing the guidance contained in the word rendered “law.”
horah: Instructed, showed, or directed.
הוֹרָה
This verbal form makes the root’s sense of giving direction visible in the instruction the ear refuses.
תְּפִלָּתוֹ
tefillato
GROWS FROM
פלל
palal
To intercede or intervene; the root family also carries a sense of judging or arbitrating.
The family of תְּפִלָּה (tefillah, prayer) includes the language of intercession and judgment. Prayer carries the shade of an appeal, and the verse says that appeal is not detached from the refusal to receive instruction.
ALSO GROWS
tefillah: Prayer or supplication.
תְּפִלָּה
This form names prayer itself as part of the root family of intercession.
pelilim: Judges or arbiters.
פְּלִילִים
This related form preserves the family’s adjudicating sense, giving prayer an echo of appeal before judgment.
THE PATTERN
Prayer and reception of instruction are joined; turning from what is heard cannot be cordoned off from the prayer that follows.
When you spread your palms, I will shut my eyes to you. Even when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear and respond. Your hands are filled with blood.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.And whatever we ask, we take from him, because we guard his commands and do what fits in his eyes.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Both verses turn on שמע (shama, hearing that receives and responds). Deuteronomy opens with this hearing; Proverbs shows what happens when the ear turns away from it, even as the person prays.
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