5. The soul

The Hebrew word we translate "soul" is nephesh. In Greek it is psychē. It covers a wider range than any English word can follow. Before I say what the soul does, I have to say what the word means, because it moves continuously from the body to the whole person.

From throat to corpse

The range runs roughly like this.

The throat or neck. "Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck [nephesh]" (Psalm 69:1). "His neck was put in a collar of iron" (Psalm 105:18).
Appetite. "Put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite" (Proverbs 23:2). Throat and appetite stand side by side. "A worker's appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on" (Proverbs 16:26). Even Sheol, the grave, "has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth" (Isaiah 5:14).
Desire and longing. "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God" (Psalm 42:1).
Life. People "seek my life", "save his life", give "life for life". Naomi's grandson will be "a restorer of life" (Ruth 4:15). A millstone may not be taken in pledge, "for that would be taking a life in pledge" (Deuteronomy 24:6). Livelihood is life.
Myself. On the Day of Atonement, "you shall afflict yourselves" (Leviticus 16:29), literally your souls. "As you yourself live" (2 Kings 2:2).
A person. "Seventy persons" went down to Egypt (Exodus 1:5). "Three thousand souls" were added at Pentecost (Acts 2:41).
A living creature. Fish, birds and beasts are "living creatures" (Genesis 1:20–24), and so is the man (Genesis 2:7).
A dead body. "Whoever touches the dead body of any person" (Numbers 19:11). The word is nephesh.

Counting by these senses, "life" and "myself" together are used more often than "soul" in the narrow sense. The same word names the organ through which a person breathes and swallows, the person, and what is left when the person has gone. The verses do not say how these senses hang together, and I leave them side by side.

Scripture does not equate the soul with blood. It says "the life [nephesh] of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). The life is located in the blood.

The soul wants

In the Old Testament, the soul is simply the ordinary word for want. "Because you crave meat [your soul desires], you may eat meat whenever you desire" (Deuteronomy 12:20). "Whatever your appetite craves" (Deuteronomy 14:26). "There is … no first-ripe fig that my soul desires" (Micah 7:1).

And the soul's deepest want is for God.

"My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1).
"My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord" (Psalm 84:2).
"My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning" (Psalm 130:6).
"To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul" (Psalm 25:1).

It is common to think of the soul as the part of us that faces inward, toward ourselves. These verses show it thirsting, longing and waiting for God.

The soul suffers

The soul is where bitterness lives. Hannah was "deeply distressed" (bitter of soul, 1 Samuel 1:10). So were David's men at Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:6), and Job: "I will complain in the bitterness of my soul" (Job 7:11). The soul is "cast down" and "in turmoil" (Psalm 42:5), "bowed down to the dust" (Psalm 44:25), "poured out" (1 Samuel 1:15; Job 30:16). It "refuses to be comforted" (Psalm 77:2). Samson's soul was "vexed to death" (Judges 16:16). Jesus said, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death" (Matthew 26:38), and "Now is my soul troubled" (John 12:27).

The soul rejoices and worships

The same soul blesses the Lord: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!" (Psalm 103:1). "My soul will rejoice in the Lord" (Psalm 35:9). "My soul magnifies the Lord" (Luke 1:46). And it is satisfied: "My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food" (Psalm 63:5).

The soul is spoken to

A person speaks to their own soul, in several settings:

In lament: "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God" (Psalm 42:5).
In praise: "Bless the Lord, O my soul" (Psalm 103:1).
In rest: "Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you" (Psalm 116:7). "I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother" (Psalm 131:2).
In battle: "March on, my soul, with might!" (Judges 5:21).
In self-indulgence: the rich fool says, "I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry'" (Luke 12:19).

The last one is answered at once: "Fool! This night your soul is required of you" (12:20).

There is an "I" that can address "my soul", calm it, rouse it, rebuke it and command it to hope. Others address it too: "How can you say to my soul, 'Flee like a bird to your mountain'?" (Psalm 11:1). And the psalmist asks God to speak to it: "Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation!'" (Psalm 35:3).

The soul is hunted and rescued

Because the soul is the life, it is the thing at stake. Enemies "seek my life". The false prophetesses hunt souls like birds (Ezekiel 13:18–20). And the soul is what God delivers: "You have delivered my soul from death" (Psalm 116:8). "He restores my soul" (Psalm 23:3). "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" (Psalm 19:7). Words reach it too: "Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country" (Proverbs 25:25).

The soul is also what people swear by: "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live" (2 Kings 2:2). And it is what people bargain for. The law puts a price on a life and sets it equally for everyone (Exodus 30:15). Satan's rule is that "all that a man has he will give for his life" (Job 2:4). But before God, nothing buys a soul back: "what shall a man give in return for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).

The soul answers for itself

"The soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4). In that sentence the soul is the person, the one who answers for what they have done. I come back to this in Chapter 12.

Loving and hating one's own soul

One more thread surprised me. In Proverbs, loving your own soul is wisdom: "Whoever gets sense loves his own soul" (Proverbs 19:8). "He who fails to find me injures himself" (Proverbs 8:36). In the Gospels the same words seem to reverse: "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25).

In Proverbs, the one who gets sense loves his own soul. In John, the one who hates his life keeps it. Two verses later he says, "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour" (John 12:27).

There is a third kind of hating one's life, which is exhaustion rather than discipleship. "I loathe my life" (Job 10:1). "So I hated life" (Ecclesiastes 2:17). Jonah: "take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:3). I looked at these death-wishes, and how they are answered, in Chapter 2.