Hebrew word · H1139

בְּנֵי־בְרַק

verak

Bene-berak

A compound name, "sons of Beraq." It could be the sons of a clan ancestor named Baraq/Barak, or "sons of lightning." Hebrew often uses "sons of" for members of a group or for people with a certain quality, so a clan reading is the most natural.

Appears 2 times in 1 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Bene-barak = "sons of lightning"

a city in Dan

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Joshua 19:45

Range of meaning

A compound name, "sons of Beraq." It could be the sons of a clan ancestor named Baraq/Barak, or "sons of lightning." Hebrew often uses "sons of" for members of a group or for people with a certain quality, so a clan reading is the most natural.

Against the English

English versions transliterate it as one name ("Bene-berak," "Bene Berak"). That is correct for a place name, but readers lose the meaning that the name "sons of …" carries.

Used elsewhere in the period

Sennacherib's annals (the Taylor/Chicago Prism, 701 BC) name Banai-barqa among the towns of Sidqa, king of Ashkelon, which the Assyrians captured, together with Beth-dagon, Joppa and Azor. The ancient site is usually placed at Ibn Ibraq (el-Kheiriyeh), about 7 km (4 miles) east of Jaffa. Later Jewish tradition makes Bene-berak the home of Rabbi Akiva, and the Passover Haggadah tells of the rabbis who stayed up all night retelling the Exodus there. The modern city of Bnei Brak took its name from the ancient town.

Where it appears

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 19:45 וּבְנֵֽי־ בְרַ֖ק and Bene, Berak

    Jehud, Bene-berak, Gath-rimmon,

    Here: "And" plus "sons of," the first half of a two-part place name. A name like "sons of X" often marks a place by the clan or family group living there.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.