kashav · pay attention, listen

What it means

kashav (קָשַׁב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “pay attention, listen”.

To pay attention, to listen carefully, to prick up the ears. It is more than hearing: it is heeding what is said.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To hear carefully.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To pay attention: to prick up the ear and heed what is said. It is more than hearing: it often goes together with ‘listen’, as its most attentive degree. From the same root is קֶשֶׁב, ‘attention’.

• “To pay attention than the fat of rams” 1 Samuel 15:22
• “Heed the voice of my cry”: prayer Psalms 5:2Psalms 66:19Daniel 9:19
• “If only you had paid attention to my commandments!” Isaiah 48:18Nehemiah 9:34
• “We will not pay attention” Jeremiah 6:17Jeremiah 6:10
• “Be attentive”: the teacher of Proverbs Proverbs 4:1Proverbs 2:2
• YHWH paid attention and heard Malachi 3:16

How we translate it

“Pay attention” 22 times, “paid attention” 6, and also “attend”, “be attentive” or “Heed”, according to the sentence (“Pay attention to the sound of the horn!”, Jeremiah 6:17; “be attentive to know understanding”, Proverbs 4:1; “he has attended to the voice of my prayer”, Psalm 66:19).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• pay attention ×22
• paid attention ×6
• attend ×4
• be attentive ×4
• Heed ×2
• Listen ×2
• attentive ×2
• pays attention ×2
• are listening ×1
• he has attended ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×2
• Psalms×8
• Proverbs×8
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×9
• Jeremiah×8
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×1
• Micah×1
• Zechariah×2
• Malachi×1

• 1 Samuel 15:22

  Samuel said, “Does YHWH have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in listening to the voice of YHWH? Look, to listen is better than sacrifice, to pay attention than the fat of rams.

• 2 Chronicles 20:15

  and he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says YHWH to you: ‘You, do not be afraid and do not be dismayed before this great multitude, for the war is not yours, but Elohim’s.

• 2 Chronicles 33:10

  YHWH spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they did not pay attention.

• Nehemiah 9:34

  And our kings, our officials, our priests, and our fathers did not do your law, nor pay attention to your commandments or to your testimonies with which you testified against them.

• Job 13:6

  Hear, please, my argument, and to the contentions of my lips pay attention.

• Job 33:31

  Pay attention, Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.

• Psalms 5:2

  Heed the voice of my cry, my King and my Elohim, for to you I pray.

• Psalms 10:17

  The desire of the humble you have heard, YHWH; you make firm their heart, you make your ear attentive

• Psalms 17:1

  A prayer of David. Hear, YHWH, what is righteous; heed my cry; give ear to my prayer, which comes not from lips of deceit.

• Psalms 55:2

  Attend to me and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I am distraught,

• Psalms 61:1

  For the director. On a stringed instrument. Of David. Hear, Elohim, my cry; attend to my prayer.

• Psalms 66:19

  But surely Elohim has heard; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

• Psalms 86:6

  Give ear, YHWH, to my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.

• Psalms 142:6

  Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my pursuers, for they are stronger than I.

• Proverbs 1:24

  Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and there was no one who paid attention,

• Proverbs 2:2

  making your ear attentive to wisdom, and incline your heart to insight;

• Proverbs 4:1

  Hear, sons, the correction of a father, and be attentive to know understanding.

• Proverbs 4:20

  My son, to my words be attentive; to my sayings incline your ear.

• Proverbs 5:1

  My son, to my wisdom be attentive; to my insight incline your ear,

• Proverbs 7:24

  And now, sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the sayings of my mouth.

• Proverbs 17:4

  An evildoer pays attention to a lip of wickedness; a liar gives ear to a tongue of calamities.

• Proverbs 29:12

  A ruler who pays attention to a word of falsehood, all his attendants are wicked.

• Song of Songs 8:13

  You who dwell in the gardens, companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it.

• Isaiah 10:30

  Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Afflicted Anathoth!

• Isaiah 21:7

  And when he sees chariots, pairs of horsemen, chariots of donkeys, chariots of camels, let him pay attention with attention, much attention.”

• Isaiah 28:23

  Give ear and hear my voice; pay attention and hear my saying.

• Isaiah 32:3

  And the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, and the ears of those who hear will pay attention.

• Isaiah 34:1

  Draw near, nations, to hear, and peoples, pay attention! Let the earth hear, and what fills it, the world and all that comes forth from it.

• Isaiah 42:23

  Who among you will give ear to this, will pay attention and hear for the time to come?

• Isaiah 48:18

  If only you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like the river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

• Isaiah 49:1

  Listen to me, coastlands, and pay attention, peoples from afar: YHWH called me from the womb; from the inward parts of my mother he made mention of my name.

• Isaiah 51:4

  “Pay attention to me, my people, and my nation, give ear to me; for instruction will go out from me, and my justice as a light of the peoples I will establish.

• Jeremiah 6:10

  To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Look, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot pay attention; look, the word of YHWH has become to them a reproach; they take no pleasure in it.

• Jeremiah 6:17

  “And I set watchmen over you: ‘Pay attention to the sound of the horn!’” But they said, “We will not pay attention.”

• Jeremiah 6:19

  Hear, earth; look, I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts, for to my words they have not paid attention, and my instruction, they have rejected it.

• Jeremiah 8:6

  I have paid attention and listened, but they do not speak what is right; no man repents of his evil, saying, “What have I done?” Everyone turns in his course, like a horse rushing into battle.

• Jeremiah 18:18

  And they said: “Come, and let us devise against Jeremiah plans, for instruction will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

• Jeremiah 18:19

  Pay attention, YHWH, to me, and hear the voice of those who contend with me.

• Jeremiah 23:18

  For who has stood in the council of YHWH and has seen and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word and heard it?

• Daniel 9:19

  Adonai, hear! Adonai, forgive! Adonai, pay attention and act; do not delay, for your own sake, my Elohim, because your name is called over your city and over your people.”

And 6 more times.