Job 12:10

12:10 in whose hand ¹  is the life ²  of every creature

and the breath of all the human race. ³ 

Job 34:14

34:14 If God ⁴  were to set his heart on it, ⁵ 

and gather in his spirit and his breath,

Psalms 104:29

104:29 When you ignore them, they panic. ⁶ 

When you take away their life’s breath, they die

and return to dust.

Daniel 5:23

5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ⁷  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ⁸  your very breath and all your ways!

James 2:26

2:26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

¹ tn The construction with the relative clause includes a resumptive pronoun referring to God: “who in his hand” = “in whose hand.”

² tn The two words נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) and רוּחַ (ruakh) are synonymous in general. They could be translated “soul” and “spirit,” but “soul” is not precise for נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), and so “life” is to be preferred. Since that is the case for the first half of the verse, “breath” will be preferable in the second part.

³ tn Human life is made of “flesh” and “spirit.” So here the line reads “and the spirit of all flesh of man.” If the text had simply said “all flesh,” that would have applied to all flesh in which there is the breath of life (see Gen 6:17; 7:15). But to limit this to human beings requires the qualification with “man.”

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tc This is the reading following the Qere. The Kethib and the Syriac and the LXX suggest a reading יָשִׂים (yasim, “if he [God] recalls”). But this would require leaving out “his heart,” and would also require redividing the verse to make “his spirit” the object. It makes better parallelism, but may require too many changes.

⁶ tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”

⁷ tn Aram “which.”

⁸ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”