Definition

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

Etymology

a primitive root (compare H2331 (חָוָה), H2421 (חָיָה));

Where the KJV renders it

• keep (leave
• make) alive
• certainly
• give (promise) life
• (let
• suffer to) live
• nourish up
• preserve (alive)
• quicken
• recover
• repair
• restore (to life)
• revive
• ( God) save (alive
• life
• lives)
• surely
• be whole

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.