to take in something with the ears: to hear it, and from there to understand it, heed and obey it, or learn of it by report
At its base this word means simply to hear, to catch a sound with the ear. But hearing in the Bible is rarely a neutral act. What you hear you may take in, weigh, and act on, so the same word slides naturally from catching a sound to learning a piece of news, to listening closely, to doing what you have been told. These are not separate words; they are one act of hearing followed through to different depths.
The step that matters most for the Bible is the last one. To hear God, in both the Old and New Testaments, is meant to end in obedience, so the word for hearing becomes the word for obeying. When Jesus says his sheep hear his voice, or when he repeats "let the one who has ears hear," the issue is not whether sound reached the ear but whether the message was taken to heart and acted on. The famous call plays on exactly this gap: many physically hear and still do not truly hear.
A few uses are narrower and worth keeping in view. The word is used for a court or official giving someone a hearing of their case, and for God hearing a prayer in the sense of answering it. These are still the one act of hearing, simply pointed at a setting where hearing carries a consequence.