Breath and Spirit

“Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk in it.”  Isaiah 42:5

God the Lord (Elohim Jehovah) is here identified as the Creator and organizer of all the universe, the heavens, and the earth, and all things therein. In context, He is also identifying Himself as the One sending forth “My servant” to be given “as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1, 6), the coming Messiah of Israel.

He who does all these things also gives every person born both breath and spirit. The “breath” (Hebrew: neshumah) is that “breath of life” which God breathed into Adam’s nostrils when He created him at
the beginning. Even those who do not believe in God must depend
on Him for their very breath, since “He Himself gives to all people
life and breath and all things” (Acts. 17:25). Therefore, He is “not
far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist” 
(Acts. 17:27-28).

He also gives each person a spirit (Hebrew: ruach), a word used first of all in reference to the “Spirit of God” (Gen. 1:2). It is this attribute in particular that constitutes the created “image of God” (Gen. 1:27). The higher land animals all possess “the breath of the spirit of life” (Gen 7:22) along with man, but only men and women are created in the image of God, each with an eternal spirit.

Man’s breath and spirit are closely related, and sometimes the words are used almost interchangeably. When the breath departs from a person’s body at death, the spirit also departs with it, but the latter “will return to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7). The breath also will be activated again on the coming resurrection day.