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Proverbs 28:9 · World English Bible

Proverbs 28:9 Meaning He Who Turns Away His Ear From

He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

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What does Proverbs 28:9 mean?

A mind can close itself to the inner voice of love and still keep the motions of asking, but such asking curdles. When the ear is stopped against the one teaching that would heal it, prayer becomes a demand shaped by fear, a wish for the world to bend rather than for the mind to be changed.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 28:9 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

A mind can close itself to the inner voice of love and still keep the motions of asking, but such asking curdles. When the ear is stopped against the one teaching that would heal it, prayer becomes a demand shaped by fear, a wish for the world to bend rather than for the mind to be changed. The trouble is not that love refuses to hear; it is that a shut mind can only ask for more of what already hurts it.

To turn the ear back is the whole correction. The same request, offered by a mind willing to listen, becomes a true prayer, for it asks not to rearrange the dream but to wake gently from it.

Ear: the mind's willingness to listen for love, the inner opening that can be kept turned toward the gentle teacher or stopped against it

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 28:9 today

  1. Put your phone face down and sit for two minutes without asking for anything. Just let the room be quiet and see what you hear when you stop making requests.
  2. In your next conversation, hold your reply until the other person is completely finished, including the pause where they are still thinking. You may find out you were about to answer a question they were not asking.
  3. When you want something to change today, a decision, a person, a delay, try asking to see it differently before asking for it to be different. Keep both wishes, but let that one go first.

Am I asking for the world to move, or for my own eyes to open?

The same truth in other traditions

Zen

You cannot pour tea into a cup that is already full. The asking is useless while the mind is stopped against the answer.

Sufism · Rumi

There is a voice that does not use words. It is only heard by the one who has stopped arguing long enough to hear it.

Stoicism · Epictetus

We were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. Most of what we call praying is talking at the world and asking it to rearrange itself around us.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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