Nephesh

Nephesh (נֶפֶש nep̄eš) is a Biblical Hebrew word which occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The word refers to the tangible aspects of life, and human beings and higher animals are both described as having a nephesh. The Hebrew term נפש is literally "living being", although it is commonly rendered as soul in English translations. A different view is that nephesh relates to being without the idea of life and that rather than having a nephesh a creation of God is a nephesh. In Genesis 2:7 the text is that Adam was not given a nephesh but "became a living nephesh." Nephesh then is better translated as person or being, seeing that Numbers 6:6 speaks of a dead body which in Hebrew is a nephesh mooth, a dead nephesh.