Breath
נִשְׁמָאStrong’s H5397nishma (nish-ma)
Appears in 24 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Nishma is the Hebrew word usually translated “breathing thing”, “breath of” and “breath”. It appears in 24 verses of the Old Testament.
“For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.”
Meaning
- Breath, spirit
How it's translated
- breathing thing 6
- breath of 4
- breath 3
- from breath of 3
- and breath of 3
- from breathing of 1
- breath my 1
- and breath his 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Job 7
- Isaiah 4
- Joshua 3
- Genesis 2
- 1 Kings 2
- Psalms 2
10 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Genesis 2:7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Genesis 7:22All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
- Deuteronomy 20:16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
- Joshua 10:40So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.
- Joshua 11:11And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire.
- Joshua 11:14And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.
Hebrew dictionary
נִשְׁמָא nishma · breath
breath, spirit Aramaic of ne.sha.mah (נְשָׁמָה "breath" H5397)
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “breath” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
BREATH, noun
breth.
- The air inhaled and expelled in the respiration of animals.
- Life.
- The state or power of breathing freely; opposed to a state of exhaustion from violent action; as, I am out of breath; I am scarce in breath
- Respite; pause; time to breathe; as, let me take breath; give me some breath
All definitions
- Breeze; aid in gentle motion.
- A single respiration; as, he swears at every breath
- An instant; the time of a single respiration; a single act.
- A word.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.