Definition

preservation of life; hence, sustenance; also the live flesh, i.e. the quick

Etymology

from H2421 (חָיָה);

Where the KJV renders it

• preserve life
• quick
• recover selves
• reviving
• sustenance
• victuals

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.