Hebrew word · Strong's H2421

חָיָה

châyâh · khaw-yaw' · verb · “to live, give life”

In a sentence

Chayah means to live or to keep alive. It runs from God breathing life into Adam, through dry bones rising in Ezekiel, to the promise of life eternal.

Chayah is the verb to live, and to make alive. It names physical life, but the Old Testament steadily widens it into the life God gives — present and eternal.

Ezekiel 37’s dry bones “live” (vayichyu) when the LORD breathes on them. That is the picture the gospel takes up: God still gives life to the dead, through his Son who is “the resurrection and the life.”

Strong's reference

Definition: to live, whether literally or figuratively; causatively, to revive

KJV usage: keep (leave, make) alive, [idiom] certainly, give (promise) life, (let, suffer to) live, nourish up, preserve (alive), quicken, recover, repair, restore (to life), revive, ([idiom] God) save (alive, life, lives), [idiom] surely, be whole.

Reference gloss from Strong's Concordance (1890, public domain).

Key verses BSB · Public Domain (CC0)

Ezekiel 37:14 “I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.’”” Genesis 2:7 “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.” Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,”

Original BibleDawn word study. Original-language data and the public-domain Strong's (1890) gloss are referenced; see sources.