Word study
Breath
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: breath, breathed, breathes, breathing. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “breath” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רוּחַ rûachbreath, wind, spirittranslated this way 35 times of its 368 uses · Strong’s H7307Noun · Translated: spirit 189, wind 83, breath 31, winds 8Full study and all 343 verses →
Genesis 6:17 And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.
Exodus 15:10 But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- נְשָׁמָה neshâmâhbreathtranslated this way 20 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5397Noun · Translated: breath 14, breathed 4, blast 2, spirit 2Full study and all 24 verses →
Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Deuteronomy 20:16 However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.
- גָּוַע gâvaexpire perish, dietranslated this way 5 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H1478Verb · Translated: die 6, perished 4, breathed his last 4, perish 3Full study and all 23 verses →
Genesis 25:8 And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.
Job 14:10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- נֶפֶשׁ nepheshsoul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passiontranslated this way 4 times of its 666 uses · Strong’s H5315Noun · Translated: soul 178, life 119, lives 30, person 22Full study and all 622 verses →
Genesis 1:30 And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth — everything that has the breath of life in it — I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Job 41:21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth.
- הֶבֶל hebelvapour, breathtranslated this way 4 times of its 73 uses · Strong’s H1892Noun · Translated: futile 25, worthless idols 9, futility 8, fleeting 5Full study and all 64 verses →
Job 7:16 I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
Psalm 39:5 You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
Greek words (New Testament)
- πνεῦμα pneûmawind, breath, spirittranslated this way 3 times of its 378 uses · Strong’s G4151Noun · Translated: Spirit 320, spirits 32, breath 3, wind 1Full study and all 343 verses →
- ἐκπνέω ekpnéōI breathe my last, expiretranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G1606Verb · Translated: breathed his last 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Mark 15:37 But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last.
Luke 23:46 Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about breath: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.