cha.yah denotes living or remaining alive, and in intensive forms preserving or restoring life.

The verb most often describes a person or people living, surviving danger or illness, or continuing through years; it also occurs in forms for preserving life or making someone live. A smaller set of clauses uses it in commands, wishes, and statements about life in relation to divine commands, words, or judgments.

1. living, surviving, or continuing in life · dominant

   Qal forms describe remaining alive after a crisis or continuing through time: in 1 Kings 17:22 the youth's soul returns and the APB renders that he “lived,” while in 2 Kings 13:21 the man touches Elisha's bones, lives, and stands up. The same use covers survival from sickness in 2 Kings 1:2 and a long span of years in Ecclesiastes 11:8.

   1 Kings 17:222 Kings 13:212 Kings 1:22 Kings 20:1Ecclesiastes 11:8Esther 4:11
2. preserving life or making alive · common

   Piel and Hiphil forms place the action upon another's life. In Exodus 1:17 the midwives do not kill the boys and the APB renders that they “let the boys live”; in 2 Samuel 8:2, those not put to death are kept alive. In 2 Kings 8:1 the woman's son is described as having been restored to life, and 1 Samuel 2:6 sets giving life beside putting to death.

   Exodus 1:17Exodus 1:222 Samuel 8:22 Kings 8:11 Samuel 2:6Deuteronomy 32:39
3. living in the setting of command or judgment · occasional

   The verb occurs in clauses that connect life with a stated course or ruling. In Deuteronomy 30:16, obedience to the listed commands is followed by the APB clause “that you may live and multiply”; in Amos 5:4, “seek me and live” is an imperative appeal. Ezekiel 20:25 speaks of judgments by which they would not live in them.

   Deuteronomy 30:16Deuteronomy 8:3Amos 5:4Amos 5:14Ezekiel 20:25Ezekiel 33:12
4. wish or plea for someone to live · rare

   Jussive forms voice a desired outcome for a particular person. In 1 Kings 1:25 those present acclaim Adonijah, and the APB renders “Long live King Adonijah!”; in 1 Kings 1:31 Bathsheba's statement is rendered “May my lord King David live forever.” In 1 Kings 20:32, the form occurs in Ben-hadad's plea, “Please let me live.”

   1 Kings 1:251 Kings 1:311 Kings 20:32Ezekiel 16:6

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses the APB commonly uses “live,” “lived,” and “alive,” while transitive forms are rendered with expressions such as “let the boys live,” “keep... alive,” “preserve alive,” and “restored to life.” Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, these renderings confirm the clauses' life-and-survival setting without fixing every English expression to the lemma.