Prepared for Old Testament Theology on February 12, 2003.
The Hebrew noun נֶפֶשׁ occurs over 750 times in the OT. The AV translators gave it a wide variety of renderings: soul (475×), life (117×), person (29×), mind (15×), heart (15×), self/selves (17×), creature (9×), body (8×), dead (5×), will (4×), desire (4×), man (3×), any (3×), appetite (2×), and a number of miscellaneous translations (45×). It is very frequently collocated with לֵבָב (especially in Deut.; 12×; Deut. 4:29; 1 Ki. 2:4) and often used in parallelism with it (Ps. 13:2; Ps. 73:21). It is also used closely with רוּחַ (Job 7:11; Is. 26:9) and with נְשָׁמָה (Gen. 2:7; cf. Job 12:10). A נֶפֶשׁ may be described either as חַיָּה (animals: Gen. 1:20; Ezek. 47:9; humans: Gen. 2:7) or as מֵת (Lev. 21:11; Num. 6:6). נֶפֶשׁ is often the subject of emotive or intellectual verbs like “rejoice” (Ps. 35:9), “love” (Song of Sol. 1:7), “desire” (Deut. 14:26), “know” (Ps. 139:14), “abhor” (Lev. 26:11; Job 33:20), and “hate” (Ps. 11:5). It can also be the subject of verbs of action like “eat” (Lev. 7:18), “touch” (Lev. 22:6), “die” (Ezek. 18:4), “work” (Lev. 23:30), and “sin” (Lev. 4:2). Verbs that are more spiritual in nature where God is usually the object can also take נֶפֶשׁ as their subject, like “seek” (1 Chron. 22:19), “praise” (Ps. 119:175), “bless” (Ps. 104:1), and “be satisfied” (Ps. 63:5). נֶפֶשׁ can also be the object of a variety of verbs such as “hunt” (1 Sam. 24:11), “kill” (Num. 31:19), “seek” (Ps. 54:3), “cut off” (Lev. 19:8), and “afflict” (Is. 58:3). It can also be described in certain ways such as “innocent” (Deut. 27:25), “guilty” (Num. 5:6), “bitter” (Job 7:11), and “unclean” (Lev. 22:6). The normal LXX rendering for נֶפֶשׁ is ψυχή (600×).
נֶפֶשׁ is quite a difficult word to analyze because of the range of meanings that it can take. It certainly is much broader than the English word “soul,” which is the normal word the AV uses to translate it (475×). It seems that there was originally a relationship between the noun and its verb, which means “to breathe.” נֶפֶשׁ seems to have as its most primitive meaning the idea of “breath” (Job 41:21), “throat,” or “mouth” (Is. 5:14; cf. Jon. 2:6; Hab. 2:5). This is rarely its meaning though. By logical association it came primarily to mean (1) the life of a living being, (2) a living being in its totality (primarily a human), (3) the inner, immaterial being as the seat of desires and emotions, and (4) the emotions or desires themselves. Most of the references can fit into these four categories, although these are probably not exhaustive. The first two are difficult to totally distinguish, but normally either the person or the life is in the forefront. Sense 1 occurs in a passage like Lev. 24:18 concerning the killing of the נֶפֶשׁ (“life”) of a beast. In Gen. 35:18, as Rachel was giving birth, her נֶפֶשׁ (“life”) was departing. Sense 2 is quite common (i.e., “person”), especially in Leviticus, where a נֶפֶשׁ is said to “sin,” “hear,” “swear,” and “commit a trespass.” These are, in context, clearly the activities of people. It is often used with a pronominal suffix to denote “oneself,” where Jonathan loved David as he loved his own נֶפֶשׁ (i.e., “as he loved himself”; 1 Sam. 18:3). The third sense occurs when emotional and intellectual things are said to come from one’s נֶפֶשׁ. For example, Hannah had “bitterness” of נֶפֶשׁ (1 Sam. 1:10). The Psalmist was often “cast down” in his נֶפֶשׁ (Ps. 42:5). Job spoke of his נֶפֶשׁ being “grieved for the poor” (Job 30:25). The last sense is really just a metaphorical use of the previous sense. When Abraham was about to bury Sarah, he asked the people of the land what their נֶפֶשׁ (i.e., “desire”) was concerning where he should bury her. Also a man in the presence of a ruler is to exercise self-control if he is given over to נֶפֶשׁ (Prov. 23:2; this may be a symbolic use of “mouth”).
A proper understanding of נֶפֶשׁ sheds light on a few significant OT texts where the word “soul” is not the most accurate translation for our English usage today. Modern English tends to use “soul” primarily for the immaterial, inner part of man. (1) For example, Psalm 16:10 says, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.” Many have understood this to mean that Christ’s soul did not remain in hell, where He went to suffer for sins. However, it is not best to see this as a reference to Christ’s soul but to His whole person, with special reference to His body. He was not left in the grave. This interpretation is supported by the parallelism in the verse itself and the NT usage of it. (2) The numerous passages that speak of a soul “touching,” “eating,” “dying,” etc., make it clear that the reference is to the person as a whole, with special reference to his physical existence. So it may be best to translate a verse like Ezek. 18:4, “The person who sins, he will die.” (3) The psalmist often prays for God’s deliverance from those who are seeking after his soul. But this is not a reference to people attacking the spiritual, immaterial part of him. Rather, to seek after one’s נֶפֶשׁ is to seek his life (i.e., to attempt to kill him). This range of meanings of נֶפֶשׁ will also carry over somewhat into the NT usage of ψυχή.
Sources: BDB, KBH, HALOT, TWOT.