Soul for soul

Isaiah 58:10 begins with a chiastic clause that centers on the repetition of nephesh :

A. If you give

B. to the hungry

C. your soul

C’. and the soul

B’. of the afflicted

A’. you satiate . . .

The text goes on to promise that the light of Israel will rise and become like the noonday sun, if they fulfill the conditions of the conditional clause.

It seems, first, that the hungry need not only food but the life-breath of others; second, that the gift of nephesh refreshes afflicted nephashot ; third, that the gift of nephesh gives more than sustenance-level nourishment, since the word “satiate” or “satisfy” edges toward “surfeit,” “abundance,” even “over-abundance.”

And this all says something about the biblical concept of “soul.” Nephashot can be given away, shared, received. And they are given away, shared, received in the concrete, physical gift of food and drink or in deliverance from oppression.

“Soul” pours into “soul,” one nephesh inhabiting and renewing others, as each gives of himself for others. So is formed a koinonia , a communion in shared goods, a communion in shared soul.