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Hebrew noun (feminine) · H5397

נְשָׁמָה

neshamahnesh-aw-maw'

breath

24 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: nᵉshâmâh

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H5397is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 10 of 39
    Old Testament books
  • 20
    spellings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · H5397

a puff, i.e. wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect. or (concretely) an animal

The King James renders it: blast, (that) breath(-eth), inspiration, soul, spirit.

James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.

Summary

neshamah is rendered "breath". It stands 24 times in the Hebrew text, across ten books.

  • Seven of the uses stand in Job, more than in any other book.
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Genesis 2:7Then 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.
  • The Greek text spells it twenty different ways.

The first use

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.

Genesis 2:7נִשְׁמַ֣ת

The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.

Where the word stands

Seven of the word's twenty-four uses are in Job.

The other 29 Old Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • breath of4
  • breathing thing4
  • and breath of3
  • breath3
  • from breath of3
  • the breathing thing2
  • and breath1
  • and breath his1
  • and breaths1
  • breath my1
  • from breathing of1

The words built on the same word-part

Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.

נְשָׂאnesato liftUses3

The words it stands beside

All 24, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

20 spellings and their grammar

STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.

How it is spelled

  • נְשָׁמָֽה׃3
  • וְנִשְׁמַ֖ת2
  • נִשְׁמַ֣ת2
  • הַ֭נְּשָׁמָה1
  • הַנְּשָׁמָה֙1
  • וּנְשָׁמָ֖ה1
  • וּנְשָׁמ֖וֹת1
  • וְנִשְׁמַת־1
  • וְ֝נִשְׁמָת֗וֹ1
  • מִ֝נִּשְׁמַ֗ת1
  • מִנִּשְׁמַ֖ת1
  • מִנִּשְׁמַ֣ת1

and 8 more spellings in the ledger below.

The grammar of each form

  • noun · feminine singular7HNcfsa
  • noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)4HNcfsc
  • preposition + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)4HR/Ncfsc
  • conjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)3HC/Ncfsc
  • the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singular2HTd/Ncfsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine plural1HC/Ncfpa
  • conjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular1HC/Ncfsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”) + pronoun suffix · 3rd person masculine singular1HC/Ncfsc/Sp3ms
  • noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”) + pronoun suffix · 1st person masculine or feminine singular1HNcfsc/Sp1bs

Genesis

two uses
  • 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.

    Genesis 2:7

    • נִשְׁמַ֣תnishmatnoun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: breath of
  • Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

    Genesis 7:22

    • נִשְׁמַת־nishmat-noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: breath of

Deuteronomy

one use
  • 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.

    Deuteronomy 20:16

    • נְשָׁמָֽה׃neshamahnoun · feminine singulartagged: breathing thing

Joshua

three uses
  • So Joshua conquered the whole region—the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes, together with all their kings—leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.

    Joshua 10:40

    • הַנְּשָׁמָה֙haneshamahthe definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: the breathing thing
  • The Israelites put everyone in Hazor to the sword, devoting them to destruction. Nothing that breathed remained, and Joshua burned down Hazor itself.

    Joshua 11:11

    • נְשָׁמָ֑הneshamahnoun · feminine singulartagged: breathing thing
  • The Israelites took for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but they put all the people to the sword until they had completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone who breathed.

    Joshua 11:14

    • נְשָׁמָֽה׃neshamahnoun · feminine singulartagged: breathing thing

2 Samuel

one use
  • The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

    2 Samuel 22:16

    • מִנִּשְׁמַ֖תminishmatpreposition + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: from breathing of

1 Kings

two uses
  • As soon as Baasha became king, he struck down the entire household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, but destroyed them all according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servant Ahijah the Shilonite,

    1 Kings 15:29

    • נְשָׁמָ֛הneshamahnoun · feminine singulartagged: breathing thing
  • Later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill, and his sickness grew worse and worse, until no breath remained in him.

    1 Kings 17:17

    • נְשָׁמָֽה׃neshamahnoun · feminine singulartagged: breath

Job

seven uses
  • By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

    Job 4:9

    • מִנִּשְׁמַ֣תminishmatpreposition + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: from breath of
  • To whom have you uttered these words? And whose spirit spoke through you?

    Job 26:4

    • וְנִשְׁמַת־venishmat-conjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: and breath of
  • as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils,

    Job 27:3

    • נִשְׁמָתִ֣יnishmatinoun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”) + pronoun suffix · 1st person masculine or feminine singulartagged: breath my
  • But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

    Job 32:8

    • וְנִשְׁמַ֖תvenishmatconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: and breath of
  • The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

    Job 33:4

    • וְנִשְׁמַ֖תvenishmatconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: and breath of
  • If He were to set His heart to it and withdraw His Spirit and breath,

    Job 34:14

    • וְ֝נִשְׁמָת֗וֹvenishmatoconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”) + pronoun suffix · 3rd person masculine singulartagged: and breath his
  • By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.

    Job 37:10

    • מִנִּשְׁמַת־minishmat-preposition + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: from breath of

Psalms

two uses
  • The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

    Psalms 18:15

    • מִ֝נִּשְׁמַ֗תminishmatpreposition + noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: from breath of
  • Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Hallelujah!

    Psalms 150:6

    • הַ֭נְּשָׁמָהhaneshamahthe definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: the breathing thing

Proverbs

one use
  • The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching out his inmost being.

    Proverbs 20:27

    • נִשְׁמַ֣תnishmatnoun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: breath of

Isaiah

four uses
  • Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

    Isaiah 2:22

    • נְשָׁמָ֖הneshamahnoun · feminine singulartagged: breath
  • For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

    Isaiah 30:33

    • נִשְׁמַ֤תnishmatnoun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: breath of
  • This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:

    Isaiah 42:5

    • נְשָׁמָה֙neshamahnoun · feminine singulartagged: breath
  • For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.

    Isaiah 57:16

    • וּנְשָׁמ֖וֹתuneshamotconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine pluraltagged: and breaths

Daniel

one use
  • How can I, your servant, speak with you, my lord? Now I have no strength, nor is any breath left in me.”

    Daniel 10:17

    • וּנְשָׁמָ֖הuneshamahconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and breath

The letters

Where it leads

How the numbers are counted

Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.

Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.

The words it stands beside are the nouns, verbs and adjectives immediately before or after it, counted in every verse where the word stands. The article, the conjunctions and the prepositions are left out, because they stand beside every word.

The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESH gloss (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →