[Charles Henrickson]

The Hebrew word nephesh can mean "soul" or "life." See, e.g., Genesis 2:7, where the Lord God breathes into man the breath of life and the man becomes a living "nephesh." When man breathes his last, his nephesh dies, in one sense. But note also the last line of the inscription, which is a prayer that the person's nephesh will be bound up into eternal life. That, btw, is a paraphrase from 1 Samuel 25:29.

[leebee vmizrach]

You wrote: "note also the last line of the inscription, which is a prayer that the person's nephesh will be bound up into eternal life." That is not correct: the word used in the (abbreviation given on) the last Hebrew line (נשמתו) refers to the "neshama," and not to the "nefesh."

[leebee vmizrach]

On second thought, since we only see the abbreviation תנצב"ה , the second letter could stand for either "nafsho" or "nishmato," plus you are correct regarding the reference to the book of Samuel, so you're probably right. I've seen תנצב"ה written out in full both ways.