The Umbrella

Attend to me, and listen to me; I was vexed in my pondering and was troubled by the noise of an enemy and by the affliction of a sinner . . .  Psalm 54:3-4a  LXX

Listen – Compare this version in the LXX with the MT (translated, of course):

Give Your attention to me and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and severely distracted,
³ Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the pressure of the wicked;   Psalm 55:2-3a  NASB

Did you notice that the Greek text uses “listen” while the Hebrew texts renders the verb “answer”?  The two meanings aren’t quite the same, are they?  The Greek doesn’t actually ask God to reply.  It only asks Him to listen to the plea.  The Hebrew text, on the other hand, isn’t satisfied with merely audible reception.  It asks for an answer.  “Talk back to me, Lord,” is the request.  Of course, feedback expects prior listening, but listening doesn’t demand response.  The reader of the Greek version might think that all the psalmist wants is an attentive ear, but he would be mistaken.  The Hebrew reader knows that the psalmist wants more than God’s attention.  He wants compassionate instruction.

This small change in meaning is completely understandable when we realize that the Hebrew verb is ʿānâ.  ʿānâ has an umbrella of meanings: to answer, respond, testify, speak, shout^[1]  Furthermore, there are three additional roots with the same consonant spelling.  They cover meanings like “occupy,” “afflict,” “oppress,” “humble,” and even “sing.”  In our case, the verb can mean “cry out,” “call,” “hear” or “speak.”  Hebrew is an action language while Greek is a thought language.  Listening is an internal operation.  The speaker doesn’t know if the other person is listening because listening is a private experience.  Not so with answering.  The Hebrew text doesn’t view God in His transcendent silence.  It views God in involved immanence.  “Answer me” is Hebrew.  “Listen to me” is Greek.  Both translations are possible from the original Hebrew root, but they lead to different views of God.  You would never realize this if you only had the Greek LXX.  When you pray in a Greek world, you hope that God is listening because there is no way to actually know what is going on in the mind of the transcendent God.  When you pray in the Hebrew world, God’s answer is proof that He is listening.  If He doesn’t answer, you don’t assume He didn’t hear.  You assume you need to make yourself better known to Him.  You pray again—louder.  As Heschel reminds us: “The task is not to know the unknown but to be penetrated with it; not to know but to be known to Him, to expose ourselves to Him rather than Him to us; not to judge and to assert but to listen and to be judged by Him.”[2]  “He remains beyond our reach as long as we do not know that our reach is within Him, that He is the Knower and we are the known; that to be means to be thought of by Him”[3]

Topical Index: listen, answer, ʿānâ, LXX, Psalm 55:2-3a

^[1] Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 679). Chicago: Moody Press.

[2] Abraham Heschel, Between God and Man: An Interpretation of Judaism (Free Press Paperbacks, 1959), p. 114.

[3] Ibid. p. 113.,