Ears that hear and eyes that see—the LORD has made them both.
Parallel translations
- WEB The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.
- KJV The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.
- NKJV The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The Lord has made them both.
- NASB The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The Lord has made both of them.
- NLT Ears to hear and eyes to see— both are gifts from the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God made both the ear that hears and the eye that sees. It matters because our faculties are gifts from the Creator, to be used to perceive truth and obey him.
Overview
The Lord is the maker of our senses, and they are meant to apprehend and respond to him. The verse implies accountability: God who made the eye and ear surely sees and hears all (Psalm 94:9). It also calls us to spiritual perception, for natural sight and hearing are not enough — Christ opens blind eyes and deaf ears, both physically and spiritually (Isaiah 35:5; Mark 8:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Matt 13:13–16This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’
- Ps 94:9He who affixed the ear, can He not hear? He who formed the eye, can He not see?
- Ps 119:18Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law.
- Eph 1:17–18that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him.
- Exod 4:11And the LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
- Acts 26:18to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 20:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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