ru.ach denotes divine influence, a person's inward condition or life, and moving air or directional winds.

The sampled verses most often place the term in clauses about divine influence coming upon, departing from, or stirring people, sometimes producing prophecy, action, or distress. It also denotes moving air and the four directions, a person's inward disposition or returning life, an agent of deception, and the repeated image of striving after wind.

1. Divine influence acting upon people · dominant

   Construct forms occur where the Spirit of the LORD or God rushes upon people and they prophesy, as in 1 Samuel 10:6 and 1 Samuel 19:20. In 1 Samuel 16:13 the APB renders the clause that the spirit of the LORD "rushed upon David," while 1 Samuel 16:14 contrasts its departure from Saul with a harmful spirit that terrified him; 2 Chronicles 36:22 similarly speaks of the LORD rousing Cyrus's spirit.

   1 Samuel 10:61 Samuel 16:131 Samuel 16:141 Samuel 19:202 Chronicles 24:202 Chronicles 36:22
2. Wind and the directions it blows · common

   The singular absolute form occurs in scenes of weather and forceful air: in 1 Kings 18:45 the APB renders "clouds and wind," and in 1 Kings 19:11 it renders a wind tearing mountains and shattering rocks. Plural forms designate the four winds or directions in 1 Chronicles 9:24 and Daniel 11:4.

   1 Chronicles 9:241 Kings 18:451 Kings 19:112 Kings 3:172 Samuel 22:11Daniel 11:4
3. A person's inward state or life · common

   The term marks an inward condition in 1 Kings 21:5, where Jezebel asks why Ahab's spirit is stubborn, and in 1 Samuel 1:15, where Hannah describes herself as severe of spirit. It also marks lost or restored vitality: the APB says there was "no longer any spirit" left in the queen in 1 Kings 10:5, and that an exhausted man's spirit returned after food in 1 Samuel 30:12; Ecclesiastes 12:7 says it returns to God who gave it.

   1 Kings 10:51 Kings 21:51 Samuel 1:151 Samuel 30:122 Kings 19:7Ecclesiastes 12:7
4. An acting spirit of deception · occasional

   In 1 Kings 22:21 the spirit comes out, stands before the LORD, and offers to entice the king. The following clauses identify it as a spirit of deception in the lips of the prophets; the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 18:20-22 presents the same speaking and deceptive action.

   1 Kings 22:211 Kings 22:221 Kings 22:232 Chronicles 18:202 Chronicles 18:212 Chronicles 18:22
5. The image of striving after wind · occasional

   In Ecclesiastes, the term appears in the recurring assessment that labor, wisdom, or life is "a striving after wind." The APB uses that wording in reflections on works and toil in Ecclesiastes 2:11 and on the pursuit of wisdom in Ecclesiastes 1:17; the precise contribution of the term within this repeated expression is not isolated by the translation.

   Ecclesiastes 1:14Ecclesiastes 1:17Ecclesiastes 2:11Ecclesiastes 2:17

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously presents the term as "Spirit," "spirit," and "wind," including phrases such as "four winds" and "a striving after wind." Because its English is a whole-verse translation, these renderings confirm the clauses' settings without fixing every occurrence to a single English equivalent.