Bible word study

Barak (Strong’s H1288): Meaning in the Bible

Barak (בָּרַךְ) is the Hebrew word numbered H1288 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration), and (vice-versa) man (as a benefit); also (by euphemism) to curse (God or the king, as treason). In the King James Bible it is translated blaspheme, bless, congratulate, curse, kneel (down).

• Original wordבָּרַךְ
• Transliterationbârak
• Pronunciationbaw-rak'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH1288
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Barak appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Barak (H1288) stands behind 331 English renderings in 289 verses across 24 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Psalms (75), Genesis (74), Deuteronomy (39).

How the King James Bible renders Barak, by count

• blessed175 of 331 (53 percent)
• bless116 of 331 (35 percent)
• blesseth8 of 331 (2 percent)
• salute4 of 331 (1 percent)
• blessest3 of 331 (1 percent)
• curse3 of 331 (1 percent)

Three places to read Barak

• Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
• Deuteronomy 16:15 Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.
• Nehemiah 9:5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Barak in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

Related words