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# נְשָׁמָה

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H5397

**breath** — used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

breath [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1504/5397/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

נְשָׁמָה: n.f. breath [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1504/5397/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.f. breath;—נ׳ Dt 20:16 + 9 times; cstr. נִשְׁמַת (cf. LagBN 82) Gn 2:7 + 10 times; sf. נִשְׁמָתִי Jb 27:3; נִשְׁמָתוֹ Jb 34:14; pl. נְשָׁמוֹת Is 57:16;— breath of God as hot wind kindling a flame Is 30:33; as destroying wind 2 S 22:16 = ψ 18:16, Jb 4:9; as cold wind producing ice Jb 37:10; as creative, giving breath to man Jb 32:8; 33:4. breath of man 1 K 17:17 Is 42:5 Jb 27:3 Dn 10:17; breath of life נשׁמת חיים Gn 2:7 (J); cf. נִשְׁמַת רוּחַ חַיִּים Gn 7:22 (J); as breathed in by God it is God’s breath in man Jb 33:4; 34:14; and is characteristic of man אדם אשׁר נשׁמה באפו Is 2:22 man in whose nostrils is but a breath (gloss). syn. of נֶפֶשׁ in נפשׁ כָּל־נְשָׁמָה every breathing thing Dt 20:16 Jos 11:11, 14 1 K 15:29; כָּל־הַנְּשָׁמָה Jos 10:40 ψ 150:6; נְשָׁמוֹת Is 57:16. spirit of man, ‖ רוּחַ, נֵר י׳ נ׳ אָדָם Pr 20:27 the spirit of man is a lamp of י׳; cf. Jb 26:4.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 24 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (1 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (1 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: breath (6); the breath (6); breathing thing (4).

## In the verses

[Psalms 150:6](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.150.6/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.150.6/#tree)

כֹּ֣ל הַ֭נְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּ֥ל יָ֗הּ הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃

*Word for word:* every (the).breathing thing let.it.praise Yahweh praise Yahweh

*JPS 1917:* Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.

[Proverbs 20:27](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.20.27/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.20.27/#tree)

נֵ֣ר יְ֭הוָה נִשְׁמַ֣ת אָדָ֑ם חֹ֝פֵ֗שׂ כָּל־חַדְרֵי־בָֽטֶן׃

*Word for word:* the.lamp of.Yahweh \[is.the\].breath of.a.human \[it.is\].searching all \[the\].chambers of.\[the\].belly

*JPS 1917:* The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/5397.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1504/5397/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).