נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh · neh'-fesh · noun · “soul, life, self”
Nephesh means soul, life, or self — the whole living person. The Hebrew Bible sees humans not as souls trapped in bodies but as living beings, body and breath together.
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).
Original BibleDawn word study. Original-language data and the public-domain Strong's (1890) gloss are referenced; see sources.