17 Bible Verses About Listening

James 1:19

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

Reflection: James writes to believers “scattered among the nations” (James 1:1), and the next verse gives the reason for the last of his three instructions: “because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (1:20). The same paragraph applies listening to Scripture. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (1:22), James writes, and he compares a hearer who does nothing to someone who looks in a mirror and forgets his own face.

Proverbs 18:13

“To answer before listening—that is folly and shame.”

Reflection: The proverb calls answering before hearing someone out both folly and shame. Two verses later the same chapter describes the opposite habit: “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out” (18:15).

Proverbs 18:2

“Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.”

Reflection: The fool in this proverb does talk, but only to air his own opinions, and he takes no pleasure in understanding. The verse before it describes an unfriendly person who “pursues selfish ends” and starts quarrels (18:1), and verse 13 of the same chapter calls answering before listening “folly and shame.”

Proverbs 1:5

“Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.”

Reflection: The opening verses of Proverbs set out what the book is for: gaining wisdom and instruction, and giving “prudence to those who are simple” (1:4). Verse 5 turns to people who are already wise and tells them to listen as well and “add to their learning.” Verse 7 names the alternative: “fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Proverbs 19:20

“Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.”

Reflection: Listening to advice is paired here with accepting discipline, and the reward comes “at the end,” when the listener is “counted among the wise.” The two verses before it speak of disciplining children and of a hot-tempered person who “must pay the penalty” (19:18-19).

1 Samuel 3:10

“The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’”

Reflection: The chapter opens with the note that “in those days the word of the Lord was rare” (3:1), and Samuel, a boy serving under the priest Eli, “did not yet know the Lord” (3:7). Three times he went to Eli, thinking Eli had called him. Eli then gave him the words to say, and when the call came again Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” The message that followed would “make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle” (3:11).

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

Reflection: Moses speaks to all Israel before they cross the Jordan (Deuteronomy 5:1; 6:1), and the call to hear comes twice in a row: “Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey” (6:3), then “Hear, O Israel” in verse 4. Hearing is joined at once to obeying and to loving God with heart, soul and strength. When a teacher of the law asked Jesus which commandment is the most important, Jesus answered with these verses (Mark 12:28-30).

Ecclesiastes 5:1

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.”

Reflection: The Teacher’s advice for going to “the house of God” is to go near to listen rather than to offer “the sacrifice of fools.” The next verse explains why words should be few there: “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth” (5:2).

Isaiah 55:3

“Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live.”

Reflection: The chapter opens as an invitation to the thirsty and to those with no money to “come, buy and eat” (55:1). Verse 2 asks why they spend money on what does not satisfy and tells them, “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good.” Verse 3 ties listening to life and goes on to a promise: “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David” (55:3).

Mark 9:7

“Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!’”

Reflection: On the mountain, Peter, James and John saw Jesus transfigured and talking with Elijah and Moses. Peter proposed putting up three shelters, and Mark adds that “he did not know what to say, they were so frightened” (9:6). Then the voice from the cloud gave its command to listen, and when the disciples looked around they “no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus” (9:8).

John 10:27

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

Reflection: Jesus said this at the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem, in winter, to people who demanded, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (10:24). He told them they did not believe “because you are not my sheep” (10:26). Earlier in the chapter the sheep follow the shepherd “because they know his voice” and run away from a stranger (10:4-5).

John 8:47

“Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Reflection: Jesus is speaking to “the Jews who had believed him” (8:31), who answered his promise of freedom by insisting they were Abraham’s descendants. The argument turns on hearing: “Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say” (8:43). In verse 47 Jesus ties the ability to hear what God says to belonging to God.

Revelation 3:20

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

Reflection: The words are addressed to the church in Laodicea (3:14), which says of itself, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing” (3:17). The verse before gives the setting: “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” The letter closes with “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (3:22).

Matthew 7:24

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

Reflection: This verse opens the parable of the two builders (7:24-27), which closes the teaching Jesus began on a mountainside in Matthew 5:1-2. Afterwards the crowds “were amazed at his teaching” (7:28). Both builders in the parable hear the same words. One puts them into practice and one does not, and when the rain and wind came, the house on the rock “did not fall” while the house on sand “fell with a great crash” (7:25-27).

Luke 8:15

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

Reflection: Jesus explains the parable of the sower: “The seed is the word of God” (8:11), and every soil stands for people who hear it. The good soil hears, retains the word and perseveres. He told the parable with the call “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear” (8:8), and after the explanation he added, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen” (8:18).

Romans 10:17

“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Reflection: Paul ends a chain of questions here: people cannot call on one they have not believed in, believe in one they have not heard of, or hear without someone preaching to them (10:14). Verse 16 quotes Isaiah, “Lord, who has believed our message?”, because not all the Israelites accepted the good news. In verse 17 the message that is heard is “the word about Christ.”

Jeremiah 29:12-13

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Reflection: Jeremiah sent these words in a letter from Jerusalem to the people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile in Babylon (29:1). The promise that God will listen comes after “seventy years are completed for Babylon” (29:10), and it is tied to seeking him “with all your heart.”