neshama · breath

What it means

neshama (נְשָׁמָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “breath”.

Blowing: the air that is breathed and gives life; "everything that has breath" is every living being.

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. The puff of life God gave; "every living thing that draws air".
2. God's breath, which gives life or destroys.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• breath ×18
• breathed ×3
• breathes ×1
• breathing thing ×1
• breaths ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Deuteronomy×1
• Joshua×3
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×2
• Job×7
• Psalms×2
• Proverbs×1
• Isaiah×4
• Daniel×1

• Genesis 2:7

  And YHWH Elohim formed the man from dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

• Genesis 7:22

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

• Deuteronomy 20:16

  But from the cities of these peoples that YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not let live anything that breathes,

• Joshua 10:40

  So Joshua struck all the land: the hill country, the Negev, the Shephelah, and the slopes, and all their kings; he left no survivor, and he devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, had commanded.

• Joshua 11:11

  They struck every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, devoting them to destruction; there was not left anything that breathed; and Hazor he burned with fire.

• Joshua 11:14

  And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock the sons of Israel plundered for themselves; only all the human beings they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them; they did not leave anything that breathed.

• 2 Samuel 22:16

  The channels of the sea were seen; the foundations of the world were laid bare at the rebuke of YHWH, at the breath of the wind of his nostrils.

• 1 Kings 15:29

  And it happened, as soon as he reigned, that he struck down all the house of Jeroboam; he did not leave to Jeroboam any breathing thing until he had destroyed it, according to the word of YHWH that he spoke through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite,

• 1 Kings 17:17

  And it happened after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was very severe, until there was no breath left in him.

• Job 4:9

  By the breath of Eloah they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

• Job 26:4

  To whom have you told words, and whose breath has come out from you?

• Job 27:3

  as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of Eloah in my nostrils,

• Job 32:8

  Surely it is a spirit in the mortal, and the breath of Shaddai that makes them understand.

• Job 33:4

  The spirit of El has made me, and the breath of Shaddai gives me life.

• Job 34:14

  If he set his heart on him, if his spirit and his breath to himself he gathered,

• Job 37:10

  By the breath of El ice is given, and the breadth of the waters is held in constraint.

• Psalms 18:15

  The channels of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, YHWH, at the breath of the wind of your nostrils.

• Psalms 150:6

  Let everything that has breath praise Yah. Praise Yah.

• Proverbs 20:27

  The lamp of YHWH is the breath of a man, searching all the inner rooms of the belly.

• Isaiah 2:22

  Have done with the human being who has breath in his nostrils, for at what is he to be reckoned?

• Isaiah 30:33

  For Topheth has been prepared from long ago; it too for the king is made ready; he has made deep and wide its pyre, fire and wood in abundance; the breath of YHWH, like a torrent of sulfur, kindles it.

• Isaiah 42:5

  Thus says El, YHWH, who creates the heavens and stretches them out, who spreads out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

• Isaiah 57:16

  For not forever will I contend, nor forever will I be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breaths that I made.

• Daniel 10:17

  And how can the servant of this my lord speak with this my lord? As for me, from now on no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”