Châyâh (חָיָה, Strong's #2421), “to live.” This verb, which has cognates in most other Semitic languages (except Akkadian), occurs 284 times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods. In the ground stem this verb connotes “having life”: “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years …” (Gen. 5:3). A similar meaning appears in Num. 14:38 and Josh. 9:21.

The intensive form of châyâh means “to preserve alive”: “… Two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee …” (Gen. 6:19). This word may also mean “to bring to life” or “to cause to live”: “… I dwell … with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa. 57:15).

“To live” is more than physical existence. According to Deut. 8:3, “man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” Moses said to Israel: “… Love the Lord thy God … that thou mayest live and multiply” (Deut. 30:16).

B. Noun.

Chay (חַי, Strong's #2416), “living thing; life.” The use of this word occurs only in the oath formula “as X lives,” literally, “by the life of X”: “And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother: as the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you” (Judg. 8:19). This formula summons the power of a superior to sanction the statement asserted. In Judg. 8:19 God is the witness to Gideon’s pledge to kill his enemies and this statement that they brought the penalty on themselves. A similar use appears in Gen. 42:15 except that the power summoned is Pharaoh’s: “Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.” In 1 Sam. 1:26 Hannah employs a similar phrase summoning Eli himself to attest the truthfulness of her statement: “And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.” Only God swears by His own power: “And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word: But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Num. 14:20-21).

The feminine form of the word, chayyah, means “living being” and is especially used of animals. When so used, it usually distinguishes wild and undomesticated from domesticated animals; the word connotes that the animals described are untamed: “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark …” (Gen. 8:1). Job 37:8 uses chayyah of rapacious beasts: “Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places.” This same word may also connote “evil beast”: “Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him …” (Gen. 37:20). In another nuance the word describes land animals as distinct from birds and fish: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

Infrequently chayyah represents a domesticated animal: “And the cities shall they have to dwell in; and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts” (Num. 35:3). Sometimes this word is used of “living beings” in general: “Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures: (Ezek. 1:5). In such passages the word is synonymous with the Hebrew word nepesh.

The plural of the noun chay, chayyim, is a general word for the state of living as opposed to that of death. This meaning is in Deut. 30:15: “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.” Notice also Gen. 27:46: “And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth.…” In a second nuance the plural signifies “lifetime,” or the days of one’s life: “… And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3:14). The phrase “the years of one’s life” represents the same idea: “And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah” (Gen. 23:1). The “breath of life” in Gen. 2:7 is the breath that brings “life”: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (cf. Gen. 6:17).

The “tree of life” is the tree which gives one eternal, everlasting “life.” Therefore, it is the tree whose fruit brings “life”: “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden …” (Gen. 2:9). In another nuance this word suggests a special quality of “life,” life as a special gift from God (a gift of salvation): “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut. 30:19). The plural of the word can represent “persons who are alive,” or living persons: “And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed” (Num. 16:48).

C. Adjective.

Chay (חַי, Strong's #2416), “alive; living.” This word has cognates in Ugaritic, Canaanite, Phoenician, Punic, and Aramaic. It occurs about 481 times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods.

The word chay is used both as an adjective and as a noun. Used adjectivally it modifies men, animals, and God, but never plants. In Gen. 2:7 the word used with the noun nepech (“soul, person, being”) means a “living” person: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The same two words are used in Gen. 1:21 but with a slightly different meaning: “And God created … every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind.…” Here a living nepesh (“creature”) is an animal. Deut. 5:26 refers to God as the “living” God, distinguishing Him from the lifeless gods/idols of the heathen.

In a related nuance chay describes flesh (animal meat or human flesh) under the skin, or “raw flesh.” In Lev. 13:10 one reads that leprosy involved seeing quick (alive), raw (chay) flesh: “And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the rising.…” The same words (bashar chay) are applied to dead, raw (skinned) animal flesh: “Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have [boiled] flesh of thee, but raw” (1 Sam. 2:15).

Applied to liquids, chay means “running”; it is used metaphorically describing something that moves: “And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water” (Gen. 26:19). In Jer. 2:13 the NASB translates “living” waters, or waters that give life (cf. Jer. 17:13; Zech. 14:8). The Song of Solomon uses the word in a figure of speech describing one’s wife; she is “a well of living waters” (4:15). The emphasis is not on the fact that the water flows but on its freshness; it is not stagnant, and therefore is refreshing and pleasant when consumed.

Bibliography Information
Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Live'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/l/live.html. 1940.

Bible Dictionaries Live

Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words

Bible Dictionaries
Live