H5315 — נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H5315
Original: נֶפֶשׁ
Transliteration: nephesh
Pronunciation: neh'-fesh
Part of Speech: Feminine noun
Root: H5314 נָפַשׁ (naphash) — to breathe, refresh oneself
Occurrences: 682 unique verses (788 tokens) in OT; 31 books
First Occurrence: Gen 1:20 — "the moving creature that hath life"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H5314 (naphash); properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental):—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.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation Group	Approx. Verses	%
soul / my soul / thy soul / souls (all variants)	~440	64%
life / my life / thy life / lives (all variants)	~97	14%
person / persons / any person	~27	4%
reflexive: himself / herself / themselves / yourselves	~14	2%
mind / heart / desire / appetite	~22	3%
creature	8	1%
body / dead body	~8	1%
other / function-word renderings	~66	10%

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Jonah	5	10.4
Lamentations	12	7.8
Proverbs	54	5.9
Psalms	141	5.7
Leviticus	48	5.6
Habakkuk	3	5.4
Jeremiah	57	4.2
Esther	6	3.6
1 Samuel	28	3.5
Numbers	44	3.4
Deuteronomy	31	3.2
Ecclesiastes	7	3.2
Job	33	3.1
Micah	3	2.9
Ezekiel	33	2.6
Haggai	1	2.6
Genesis	39	2.5
Isaiah	32	2.5
Joshua	15	2.3
1 Kings	18	2.2
Amos	3	2.1
2 Samuel	14	2.0
2 Kings	13	1.8
Judges	8	1.3
Exodus	15	1.2
Hosea	2	1.0
Song of Songs	7	—
Ruth	1	—
2 Chronicles	4	0.5
Zechariah	1	0.5
1 Chronicles	4	0.4

Highest density in Jonah and Lamentations; highest total count in Psalms and Jeremiah. Wisdom/poetry and prophets dominate. Absent from Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and most minor prophets. Chronicles uses it rarely despite covering the same history as Samuel/Kings.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Breathing Creature / Any Animate Being¶

Nephesh applies to all breathing creatures, not only humans. - Gen 1:20 — "the moving creature that hath life" (kol nephesh chayyah) — sea creatures - Gen 1:24 — "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind" — land animals - Gen 2:7 — "man became a living soul" (nephesh chayyah) — the Edenic formation of Adam; same phrase applied to humans that Gen 1 applied to animals - Gen 9:10 — "every living creature (nephesh chayyah)" in Noah's covenant — all vertebrate life

2. The Whole Person / Legal Individual¶

In law and census, nephesh = the individual human being as a countable unit. - Exo 1:5 — "all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls" - Lev 4:2 — "If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments" - Num 5:6 — "When a man or woman shall commit any sin... to do a trespass against the LORD"

3. Life / Physical Vitality at Risk¶

Nephesh = the life one can lose, risk, or have taken. - Job 2:4 — "all that a man hath will he give for his life" - Josh 2:14 — "Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business" - Jdg 5:18 — "Zebulun... a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death" - 1 Ki 1:29 — "the LORD... that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress"

4. Inner Self / Seat of Desire, Appetite, and Emotion¶

Nephesh as the locus of hunger, longing, grief, and inner experience. - 1 Sam 1:10 — "she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD" - Deu 14:26 — "whatsoever thy soul desireth" (asher te'avveh naphshekha) — festival provision; nephesh as the seat of lawful appetite and delight - Pro 2:10 — "knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul" - Ec 6:2 — "he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth" - Hab 2:5 — "he is a proud man... who enlargeth his desire as hell"

5. Wholehearted Devotion to God¶

"With all thy soul" is a fixed covenant formula calling for undivided commitment. - Deu 4:29 — "seek the LORD thy God... with all thy heart and with all thy soul" - 2 Chr 6:38 — "if they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul" - 1 Chr 22:19 — "set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God"

6. Reflexive Pronoun — Self¶

Nephesh frequently serves as an emphatic reflexive: "he himself", "by herself." - Jer 3:11 — "The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah" - Amos 6:8 — "The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD"

7. Corpse / Ritual Uncleanness¶

Contact with a dead nephesh conveys defilement — nephesh can refer to a dead body. - Num 6:6 — "he shall come at no dead body" (nephesh meth — lit. a dead soul) - Hag 2:13 — "If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean?"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	189x (28%)	Soul before the LORD; redeemed or sought by God
חַי (chay)	H2416	61x (9%)	nephesh chayyah — "living soul/creature"
פָּנִים (panim)	H6440	49x (7%)	Soul cast/presented before God's face/presence
מוּת (muth)	H4191	47x (7%)	"The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Eze 18)
אָכַל (akal)	H398	46x (7%)	Blood prohibition — soul/life is in the blood
יָד (yad)	H3027	46x (7%)	Soul delivered from / falling into someone's hand

Word Family / Cognates¶

H5314 נָפַשׁ (naphash) — root verb: to breathe, refresh oneself (3 occurrences)

Synonyms¶

H1621 גַּרְגֶּרֶת, H7272 רֶגֶל, H990 בֶּטֶן, H1320 בָּשָׂר, H1538 גֻּלְגֹּלֶת — body-part / embodied-life terms returned by search_relationships.py where nephesh overlaps the concrete living person.
H2416 חַיָּה, H376 אִישׁ — living-creature / person terms in the same animate-being field.
H3519 כָּבוֹד, H3820 לֵב, H3824 לֵבָב, H6106 עֶצֶם, H7307 רוּחַ — inner-person / self vocabulary neighboring nephesh in the personhood cluster.
פִּי, מְאֹד — additional surface forms flagged by search_relationships.py inside this wider embodied-self network.

Antonyms¶

H1320 בָּשָׂר (basar) — also returned as an antonym where material flesh is contrasted with the whole living self or life-bearing person.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
רוּחַ (ruach)	H7307	both in "spirit" / "breath" contexts	ruach = wind/breath/directional force; nephesh = the breathing creature itself
לֵב / לֵבָב (leb/lebab)	H3820/H3824	both "heart", "mind", "desire"	leb = seat of intellect and will; nephesh = whole person including appetite and emotion
חַי (chay)	H2416	both "life", "my life"	chay = adjective "alive/living"; nephesh = the living entity itself

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	LXX Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
ψυχή (psychē) G5590	599x	31.82	Dominant — ~87% of uses; full semantic parallel
ζάω (záō) G2198	51x	2.14	When nephesh = "to live" (verbal context)
ζωή (zōḗ) G2222	22x	2.16	When nephesh = "life" as a noun

The LXX's near-exclusive use of ψυχή for nephesh permanently imported the Hebrew concept of the whole animated self into Greek — directly shaping NT anthropology and soteriology.

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[001002010001] Air — breath / atmosphere cluster with neighbors such as A638/H637/H639 אַף, H1864 דָּרוֹם, and H1892/H1893 הֶבֶל.
[003001016] Self — the strongest personhood field, with neighbors such as H2436 חֵיק, H3173 יָחִיד, H3519 כָּבוֹד, H3629 כִּלְיָה, and H6106/H6107 עֶצֶם.
[001002007] People — places nephesh among human-being terms such as H120/H121 אָדָם, H157/H158 אהב / אַהַב, and H352 אַיִל.
[001002010014] Spices — a secondary cluster surfaced by search_relationships.py, with neighbors such as H81 אֲבָקָה, H174 אֲהָלוֹת, H1313/H1314 בֹּשֶׂם, and H2464 חֶלְבְּנָה.