Aramaic word · H5396
נִשְׁמָא
nishmetakh
breath
Breath, specifically the life-breath that makes a body alive. It matches Hebrew neshamah, which God breathed into the first human (Gen 2:7). When it is withdrawn, the person dies (Job 34:14–15; Ps 104:29).
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
breath, spirit
Aramaic of ne.sha.mah (נְשָׁמָה "breath" H5397)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Breath, specifically the life-breath that makes a body alive. It matches Hebrew neshamah, which God breathed into the first human (Gen 2:7). When it is withdrawn, the person dies (Job 34:14–15; Ps 104:29).
- Against the English
'Breath' is correct but can sound like simple respiration. NIV's 'your life' gets the sense but loses the picture of God holding the very air the king is breathing as he drinks.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Job 12:10: 'In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.' Isaiah 42:5: God 'gives breath (neshamah) to the people on it.' Hebrew poetry often pairs 'breath' and 'hand' in this way.
Where it appears
Daniel · 1
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Daniel 5:23 נִשְׁמְתָ֥ךְ breath your
Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.
Here: 'Your breath.' This is the breath of life itself (compare Hebrew neshamah in Gen 2:7). Within hours it would be taken back (5:30).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.