The Hebrew describes this in the Old Testament with the Hebrew word gava. The first time this word is used is in Gen 6:17:

“For I, behold, I bring upon the earth a flood of water to destroy all flesh under heaven in which is the breath of life; all that is upon the earth shall perish.”
Gen 6:17 Rev. Elberfelder

“And I, behold Me, as I bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh that has in it the spirit of the living under the heavens. All that is on earth, breathe out.”
Gen 6:17 Concordant Old Testament

In the Old Testament

Our “life spirit” is “breathed out” at the last breath and the person “dies”. Therefore, “to breathe out” is interpretively translated as “to perish”. The original thought, however, is the exhalation of the breath of life. Almost identically it sounds also in the following verses, where likewise the speech is about “breathing out”. Even if the word is translated differently in the used translation – it is everywhere the hb. gava. One “blows out” and is “gathered to one’s ancestors,” that is, one dies as they also died.

“And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life that he lived: 175 years. And Abraham passed away, and died in a good old age, old and full of days, and was gathered unto his nations.”
Gen 25:8

“And these are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years; and he passed away, and died, and was gathered unto his people.”
Gen 25:17

“And the days of Isaac were 180 years. And Isaac passed away, and died, and was gathered unto his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”
Gen 35:29

“And he [Jakob] commanded them and said to them: When I am gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite; in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for an inheritance burial. There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah; there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah; and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is on it are property, bought by the sons of Het. And when Jacob had finished giving orders to his sons, he drew up his feet upon his bed, and passed away, and was gathered unto his people.”
Gen 49:33

“If he turned his heart only to himself, drawing back to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would pass away altogether, and man would return to dust.”
Job 34:14-15

“You hide your face: you are terrified. You take away their breath of life: they perish and return to dust.”
Ps 104:29

In the New Testament

The New Testament speaks similarly about “breathing out.” There they are two different Greek terms

• 
  ekpneo
  (aus-geist) and
• 
  ekpsycho
  (aus-seelen).

The Greek ekpneo occurs three times:

“But Jesus made His voice loud and breathed out. Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing opposite Him, perceived that He was thus breathing out, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God.'”
Mark 15:37-39

“It was already about the sixth hour when an eclipse came over the whole land until the ninth hour because the sun was absent. Also, the curtain of the temple tore in half. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice: ‘Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit!’ After these words He breathed out.
Lk 23:44-47

Again, we see that the spirit returns to God when someone dies. With Jesus, this was special in that He consciously surrendered His spirit to God. For Jesus was man, yet also the Son of God, of whom it is written:

“For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has also given the Son to have life in Himself.”
John 5:26

He who has life in Himself, as God has life in Himself, does not die just like that. It is a conscious act of will to submit in obedience to God’s will. Just as Paul talks about the obedience of Jesus:

“… He emptied Himself, took the form of a slave, was made like men and invented in the manner of a man; He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross. – Therefore, God also exalted Him exceedingly high …”
Phil 2:5-11

The Greek ekpsycho occurs in the following biblical passages and also speaks of the passing away of man: Acts 5:5 and Acts 5:10 (Ananias and Sapphira), Acts 12:23 (King Herod). The choice of another word is likely to be in the emphasis on the soul. Maybe something like the transitoriness of our existence and all perceptions and feelings (soul) here in this life is expressed with it.

Carried by God

So far we have talked about our present life, how we get it and how it passes away. Life is linked to breath and it is something fleeting. We receive it as a gift and we also give this gift back. We cannot contribute much ourselves, for we do not have life “in ourselves” as God has life in Himself (John 5:26). Our life (and all other life in this world) depends on Him and is sustained by Him.

Speaking to the Athenians at the Areopagus, Paul says:

“The God who created the world and all that is in it, He, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything; yet He Himself gives life and breath and all the rest to all.”
Acts 17:24-25

And elsewhere:

“For out of Him and through Him and to Him is the universe!”
Rom 11:36

Everything is ultimately borne by God through His Son:

“… He speaks to us on the last of these days in the Son, whom He has set as the lot-holder of all things and through whom He has also made the eons. He is the radiance of His glory and the imprint of His being and carries the universe through His powerful Word.”
Heb 1:2-3

This dependence on God – witnessed throughout the Bible – makes it clear that our lives are both created by Him and sustained by Him. This is the “cosmic dimension” of the Gospel, which goes far beyond my own sensibility and which does not stop with me, but finds an image and expression in the world itself.

This realization also makes us understand that we do not fall out of God’s hand when we die. Whether and how and where we exist when we are dead is irrelevant in the light of God’s omnipotence. We don’t know what happens after we die, but as far as anyone has observed, it’s all over. Therefore, it is clear to the biblical writers throughout that man dies as a whole and the dead wait for God’s intervention until life is given again (cf. Hi 14:10-15; Jn 11:23-24). The outlook is in the resurrection (John 11:25).

The whole man dies, not a part of him

“And all the days of Adam that he lived were 930 years, then he died.”
Gen 5:5

“And all the days sets amounted to 912 years, then he died.”
Gen 5:8

“And all the days of Kenan were 910 years, then he died.”
Gen 5:14

Other scriptures: Gen 5:17; Gen 5:20 Gen 27:31; Gen 9:29; Gen 11:32; Gen 25:8 Gen 25:17, Gen 35:28-29. It is always the whole person who dies. He dies himself. The Bible is very sober here. When we exhale the last breath, we are completely dependent on our God and Father. We have no life within ourselves. The life we had here will then be over. We sleep (says the Bible in figurative language) and wait to be resurrected so that we can rise to a new life. This is based entirely on God’s promises, not on our being able to bring this about ourselves.

Resurrection as a response to death

Man dies and then he is really dead. He does not live on for some unknown reason as if he were immortal. Death can sometimes be a “release” from pain or suffering. Our body is used up at some point. We can’t go any further. The essence of life can no longer be carried by our body and the person dies. However, death as the conclusion of life is not an answer to the desire to live. Death is a problem of which we are aware, but which we cannot lift by our own efforts. Death is the “last enemy” that will once be abolished (1 Cor. 15:26), Paul writes. This is a preview of God’s work.

In the Bible, resurrection is the answer to death. Only through resurrection will a person live again. Only a resurrected person can live in communion with God again. And if He will once be all in all (1Cor 15,28), then only because all men have been resurrected, because death has been abolished and in its place life and incorruption have been brought to light.

“… Christ Jesus… who abolishes death and brings life and incorruption to light through the gospel, for which I have been [Paulus] as a herald, apostle and teacher of the nations”.
2Tim 1:10-11

Deepening

• Immortality
• Christ, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep