Grow With Me
Grow With Me

רוּחַ

ruach · spirit, wind, breath

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H7307 · appears 378 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

ruach (רוּחַ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “spirit, wind, breath”.

The basic idea is "air in motion". The same word can be "wind"; "breath", the air that is breathed and keeps life; or "spirit": the mood or inner strength of a person, or the Spirit of God, his presence and power at work.

How to say it

ru·ach

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. Literally "wind": the air that leaves the lungs.
  2. Moving air; also the four quarters of the horizon.
  3. What moves a person inside: their life, their mood.
  4. The spirit of Elohim or YHWH: his presence and power.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

The basic idea is air in motion. BDB defines it as wind; by resemblance, breath; figuratively, life, temper, anger; and by extension, spirit, only of a rational being. The passage decides the translation.

Historical and cultural background

In Ezekiel 37:9-14 the same word serves as wind (“From the four winds come”), as the breath that gives life to the bodies, and as the spirit of God (“I will put my spirit in you”).

How we translate it

“Spirit” 229 times, “wind” 104, “breath” 23, “winds” 9, “blast” 3, “side” 4. This edition's glossary sets “spirit” and allows “wind” and “breath”. When it refers to God in the Old Testament it is lowercase, “the spirit of Elohim”, because the Hebrew makes no distinction and a capital letter would decide for the reader.

How it is translated

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

  • spirit ×229
  • wind ×104
  • breath ×23
  • winds ×9
  • side ×4
  • blast ×3
  • spirits ×3
  • sides ×2
  • discouragement ×1

Related words

Comes from

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

  • Genesis 1:2

    Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of Elohim was hovering over the surface of the waters.

  • Genesis 3:8

    And they heard the sound of YHWH Elohim walking about in the garden in the wind of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the presence of YHWH Elohim among the trees of the garden.

  • Genesis 6:3

    And YHWH said, “My spirit will not remain in the human being forever, for he also is flesh; and his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

  • Genesis 6:17

    And I, look, I am bringing the flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life, from under the heavens; everything that is on the earth will perish.

  • Genesis 7:15

    And they came to Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh in which is the spirit of life.

  • Genesis 7:22

    Everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils, of all that was on dry land, died.

  • Genesis 8:1

    And Elohim remembered Noah and all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark; and Elohim made a wind pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

  • Genesis 26:35

    and they were bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.

  • Genesis 41:8

    In the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh.

  • Genesis 41:38

    Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find anyone like this, a man in whom is the spirit of Elohim?”

  • Genesis 45:27

    But they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and he saw the carts that Joseph had sent to carry him, and the spirit of Jacob their father revived.

  • Exodus 6:9

    Moses spoke this way to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their discouragement and because of hard bondage.

  • Exodus 10:13

    So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and YHWH drove an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; when it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.

  • Exodus 10:19

    And YHWH turned it into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.

  • Exodus 14:21

    Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and YHWH drove back the sea by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were split.

  • Exodus 15:8

    By the breath of your nostrils the waters piled up; the streams stood up like a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

  • Exodus 15:10

    You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

  • Exodus 28:3

    And you shall speak to all the wise of heart, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom, that they make the garments of Aaron to consecrate him to serve as priest for me.

  • Exodus 31:3

    and I have filled him with the spirit of Elohim, with wisdom, and with understanding, and with knowledge, and with all kinds of work,

  • Exodus 35:21

    And they came, every man whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and they brought the contribution of YHWH for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.

  • Exodus 35:31

    and he has filled him with the spirit of Elohim, with wisdom, with understanding, and with knowledge, and with all kinds of work,

  • Numbers 5:14

    and a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, and she has made herself unclean; or a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not made herself unclean,

  • Numbers 5:30

    or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before YHWH, and the priest shall carry out for her all this instruction.

  • Numbers 11:17

    And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall carry the burden of the people with you, and you shall not carry it yourself alone.

  • Numbers 11:25

    And YHWH came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy men, the elders; and when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue.

  • Numbers 11:26

    But two men had remained in the camp; the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the second Medad; and the spirit rested on them —and they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent— and they prophesied in the camp.

  • Numbers 11:29

    But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? If only all the people of YHWH were prophets, that YHWH would put his spirit on them!”

  • Numbers 11:31

    And a wind set out from YHWH and brought across quails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on that side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground.

  • Numbers 14:24

    But my servant Caleb, because there was a different spirit in him and he has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went, and his offspring shall possess it.

  • Numbers 16:22

    And they fell on their faces and said, “El, Elohim of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and will you be angry with all the community?”

  • Numbers 24:2

    And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the spirit of Elohim came upon him.

  • Numbers 27:16

    “May YHWH, the Elohim of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the community,

  • Numbers 27:18

    YHWH said to Moses, “Take for yourself Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom there is the spirit, and lay your hand on him.

  • Deuteronomy 2:30

    But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass by him, for YHWH your Elohim had hardened his spirit and made firm his heart, in order to give him into your hand, as it is this day.

  • Deuteronomy 34:9

    And Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as YHWH had commanded Moses.

  • Joshua 2:11

    We heard it, and our heart melted, and there did not remain any more spirit in any man because of you, for YHWH your Elohim, he is Elohim in the heavens above and on the earth below.

  • Joshua 5:1

    And it came about, when all the kings of the Amorite who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanite who were by the sea, heard how YHWH had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their heart melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

  • Judges 3:10

    The spirit of YHWH came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and YHWH gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram into his hand, and his hand was strong over Cushan-rishathaim.

  • Judges 6:34

    The spirit of YHWH clothed Gideon, and he blew the horn, and Abiezer was summoned after him.

  • Judges 8:3

    Into your hand Elohim has given the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and what was I able to do compared with you?” Then their spirit toward him subsided when he spoke this word.

And 338 more times.