🔼The name Barak: Summary
- Meaning
- Lightning
- Etymology
- From the noun ברק (baraq), lightning.
🔼The name Barak in the Bible
There's only one Barak named in the Bible and he is the son of Abinoam of Kedesh-naphtali and a general during the days of the judge Deborah (Judges 4:6).
Barak is called by God to lead 10,000 men from Naphtali and Zebulun against the army of Jabin, king of Hazor in Canaan. The battle takes place near the river Kishon, and the Canaanites are defeated. Jabin's general Sisera is finally murdered by a woman named Jael.
The apostle Paul speaks of Barak (Βαρακ) as a hero of the faith in his letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:32).
🔼Etymology of the name Barak
The name Barak is identical to the Hebrew word ברק (baraq) meaning lightning:
ברק
The verb ברק (baraq) means to cast forth, predominantly of light and lightning. Noun ברק (baraq) means lightning, or the glittering of weapons. Nouns ברקת (bareqet) and ברקת (bareqat) describe a kind of sparkling or glittering gem.
🔼Barak meaning
For a meaning of the name Barak, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Lightning. Jones adds Thunderbolt.
The prime minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001 named himself Ehud Barak at the start of his career as a soldier in 1959. At the end of it, in 1995, he held the ultimate rank of lieutenant general.
Barak played major roles in the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War and headed special commando units, including the one that stormed the hijacked plane at Lod International Airport in 1972. He was born as Ehud Brog.