Perhaps something to do with the soul being immaterial, but not sure.
The Holy Scriptures define “living soul” as the whole Person/Being or Creature:
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul.
Beasts, also, are “living souls”.
The Bible speaks of soul as in the totality of the dust + breath in either man or animal:
And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle:
one soul of five hundred, [both]
of the persons , and
of the beeves , and
of the asses , and
of the sheep : Num. 31:28
Cows [beeves, bovine], asses and sheep also are “souls”.
Is this an isolated case, or is this noted through all of scripture? It is throughout scripture:
For
that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea, they have all one breath ; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast : for all [is] vanity. Ecc. 3:19
…
man : and
every living soul died in the sea . Rev. 16:3
…
he giveth to all life , and breath, and all things; Acts 17:25
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing , and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:10
But
if the priest buy any soul with his money,
he shall eat of it , and he that is born in his house:
they shall eat of his meat . Lev. 22:11
See
Joshua 10 , …
“…he utterly destroyed, them, and
all the souls that were therein …” Jos. 10:28
“…he smote it with the edge of the sword, and
all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it …” Jos. 10:30
“…and smote it with the edge of the sword, and
all the souls that were therein …” Jos. 10:32
“…smote it with the edge of the sword, and
all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day …” Jos. 10:35
And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and
all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining , according to all that he had done to Eglon; but
destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein. Jos. 10:37
" …
utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining …" Jos. 10:39
So Joshua …
he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed , as the LORD God of Israel commanded. Jos. 10:40
… “And
they utterly destroyed all that was in the city , both man and woman, young and old, and
ox, and sheep, and ass , with the edge of the sword .” Jos. 6:21
…just as Joshua did to Haxor, so he did to those cities, “And
they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them : there
was not any left to breathe : and he burnt Hazor with fire.” Jos. 11:11
