They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
They have ears, but they hear not; Noses have they, but they smell not;
Ears they have, and they hear not, A nose they have, and they smell not,
They have ears, and they hear not; a nose have they, and they smell not;
Psalms — The canon's longest book — 150 Psalms edited into five doxology-bookended books, composed across a millennium, attributed to David, Asaph, Korah's sons, Moses, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, and anonymous voices. A ''Torah of David''; the Bible's longest continuous liturgical-devotional corpus.
Voices4
They have ears, but they hear not,.... The makers of them have taken care to place a pair of ears to their heads, but could not convey the faculty of hearing to them; so that though their priests may cry from morning to noon, as Baal's worshippers did, saying, O Baal, hear us; and even tonight, and one day and night after another, nothing is heard, 1Ki 18:
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
But this all inspired Scripture also teaches more plainly and with more authority, so that we in our turn write boldly to you as we do, and you, if you refer to Scripture, will be able to verify what we say. For an argument when confirmed by higher authority is irresistibly proved. From the first then the divine Word firmly taught the Jewish people about the abolition of idols when it said, "You shall not make for yourself a graven image or the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or in the earth beneath."
Athanasius of Alexandria· Against the Heathen 45:2-3, 373patristic
Those who had possessions He freed from the bondage of senseless stuff, lest while they served it they should become servers of idols, concerning which it is written, "They have no breath in their mouth, and although they have eyes, and ears, and hands, they …
Philoxenus of Mabbug· 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 8 -- First Discourse on Poverty, 523patristic
. Ver. 6. They have ears, but they hear not. The Psalmist might have pointed to the monstrous ears with which some heathen deities are disfigured, truly they have ears; but no prayer of their rotaries, though shouted by a million voices, can ever be heard by them. How can gold and silver hear, and how can a rational being address petitions to one who cannot even hear his words? Noses have they, but they smell not.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
