נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh · neh'-fesh · noun · “soul, life, self”
Néphesh signifie âme, vie, soi — la personne vivante tout entière. La Bible hébraïque ne voit pas l'humain comme une âme prisonnière d'un corps, mais comme un être vivant — corps et souffle ensemble.
Réponse rapide traduite avec l'aide de l'IA et en cours de révision. L'explication complète est affichée en anglais.
Nephesh is often translated “soul,” but it rarely means an immaterial part separate from the body. It refers to the living self — appetite, desire, life itself. “The man became a living nephesh” when God breathed into him.
So when the Psalmist cries, “Bless the LORD, O my nephesh,” he summons his whole self to worship. The word reminds us that biblical faith engages the entire person, not just a “spiritual” compartment.
Definition: properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental)
KJV usage: any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, [idiom] dead(-ly), desire, [idiom] (dis-) contented, [idiom] fish, ghost, [phrase] greedy, he, heart(-y), (hath, [idiom] jeopardy of) life ([idiom] in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, [phrase] slay, soul, [phrase] tablet, they, thing, ([idiom] she) will, [idiom] would have it.
Reference gloss from Strong's Concordance (1890, public domain).