What does Nephesh mean?

Nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ, Strong's H5315) is a Hebrew word. Strong's defines it as properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental). The King James Bible translates it as any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, × dead(-ly), desire, × (dis-) contented, × fish, ghost, greedy, he, heart(-y), (hath, × jeopardy of) life (× in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, (× she) will, × would have it.

What is the Strong's number for Nephesh?

The Strong's number for Nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ) is H5315. It is a Hebrew word from Strong's public-domain dictionary keyed to the King James Bible.

Bible word study

Nephesh (Strong’s H5315): Meaning in the Bible

Nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ) is the Hebrew word numbered H5315 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental). In the King James Bible it is translated any, appetite, beast, body, breath.

נֶפֶשׁ

nephesh · Hebrew

Strong’s H5315 · neh'-fesh

Original wordנֶפֶשׁ
Transliterationnephesh
Pronunciationneh'-fesh
Part of speechnoun (feminine) (n-f)
Strong’s numberH5315
LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental)

Derivation. from H5314;

How the King James Bible translates it

any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, × dead(-ly), desire, × (dis-) contented, × fish, ghost, greedy, he, heart(-y), (hath, × jeopardy of) life (× in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, (× she) will, × would have it. (The × marks places where the word shapes the phrasing rather than being rendered by a single English word.)

Where Nephesh appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Nephesh (H5315) stands behind 738 English renderings in 670 verses across 31 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Psalms (144), Leviticus (60), Jeremiah (58).

How the King James Bible renders Nephesh, by count

soul416 of 738 (56 percent)
life99 of 738 (13 percent)
souls59 of 738 (8 percent)
lives17 of 738 (2 percent)
persons15 of 738 (2 percent)
person14 of 738 (2 percent)

Three places to read Nephesh

Genesis 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
2 Samuel 1:9 He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me.
Psalms 142:4 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Nephesh in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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