barach · flee

What it means

barach (בָּרַח) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “flee”.

Run away suddenly. Said of a bar, pass through from end to end.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To run away to save oneself from a danger or from someone.
2. To make someone flee.
3. To run across, like a bar.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To flee, to escape from a danger or from someone. Said of a bar of the dwelling, to pass from one end to the other, to run across; of the same root is בְּרִיחַ (bar, bolt).

• Fleeing to save one's life Exodus 2:151 Samuel 19:121 Kings 11:40
• Fleeing from before someone Genesis 27:43Psalms 3:12 Samuel 15:14
• Fleeing from YHWH Jonah 1:3Psalms 139:7
• Life that flees like a shadow Job 14:2
• The bar that runs from end to end Exodus 26:28

How we translate it

“Fled” 36 times, “flee” 14, “was fleeing” 3, “flees” 2. This edition keeps בָּרַח = “flee” apart from נִמְלַט, “escape”, and from מִלֵּט נֶפֶשׁ, “save your life” (1 Samuel 19:11): “he went and fled and escaped” (1 Samuel 19:12). In Exodus 26:28 the sense is another, and it is translated “shall run from end to end”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• fled ×36
• flee ×14
• was fleeing ×3
• flees ×2
• he flees in haste ×2
• put to flight ×2
• I chased him away ×1
• am fleeing ×1
• drives away ×1
• escaped ×1
• others ×2

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×9
• Exodus×4
• Numbers×1
• Judges×2
• 1 Samuel×8
• 2 Samuel×6
• 1 Kings×6
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Nehemiah×3
• Job×6
• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×1
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×2
• Jeremiah×4
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×1
• Amos×1
• Jonah×3

• Genesis 16:6

  But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your slave woman is in your hand; do to her what is good in your eyes.” So Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her presence.

• Genesis 16:8

  He said, “Hagar, slave woman of Sarai, where from have you come, and where are you going?” She said, “From the presence of Sarai my mistress I am fleeing.”

• Genesis 27:43

  So now, my son, listen to my voice: get up, flee to Laban my brother, to Haran,

• Genesis 31:20

  And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing.

• Genesis 31:21

  He fled, he and all that he had; he rose, crossed the River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

• Genesis 31:22

  It was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled.

• Genesis 31:27

  Why did you secretly flee, deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre.

• Genesis 35:1

  Elohim said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and stay there, and make there an altar to El who appeared to you when you fled from Esau your brother.”

• Genesis 35:7

  He built there an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there Elohim had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

• Exodus 2:15

  When Pharaoh heard of this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian; and he sat down by the well.

• Exodus 14:5

  When it was told to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”

• Exodus 26:28

  The middle bar, halfway up the boards, shall run from end to end.

• Exodus 36:33

  And he made the middle bar to pass through the middle of the boards from end to end.

• Numbers 24:11

  So now flee to your place. I said, ‘I will greatly honor you’; but look, YHWH has held you back from honor.”

• Judges 9:21

  Jotham fled and escaped, and he went to Beer and lived there because of Abimelech his brother.

• Judges 11:3

  Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and there gathered around Jephthah empty men, and they went out with him.

• 1 Samuel 19:12

  Michal let David down through the window, and he went and fled and escaped.

• 1 Samuel 19:18

  David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.

• 1 Samuel 20:1

  David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity, and what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

• 1 Samuel 21:10

  David arose and fled on that day from Saul, and came to Achish king of Gath.

• 1 Samuel 22:17

  The king said to the runners who stood by him, “Turn and put to death the priests of YHWH, because their hand too is with David, and because they knew that he was fleeing, and they did not inform me.” But the servants of the king were not willing to stretch out their hand to fall upon the priests of YHWH.

• 1 Samuel 22:20

  But one son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped, and his name was Abiathar; he fled after David.

• 1 Samuel 23:6

  When Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, the ephod came down in his hand.

• 1 Samuel 27:4

  It was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, and he did not seek him any more.

• 2 Samuel 4:3

  The Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have resided as foreigners there until this day.

• 2 Samuel 13:34

  Absalom fled. The young man on watch lifted up his eyes and looked, and there many people were coming by the road behind him, from the side of the hill.

• 2 Samuel 13:37

  Absalom fled and went to Talmai son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day.

• 2 Samuel 13:38

  So Absalom fled and went to Geshur, and he was there three years.

• 2 Samuel 15:14

  David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Get up, and let us flee, for there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Hurry to go, or he will quickly overtake us and bring the evil down on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

• 2 Samuel 19:9

  All the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies, and he rescued us from the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

• 1 Kings 2:7

  But to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite show loyal love, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for so they came near to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.

• 1 Kings 2:39

  And it happened at the end of three years that two slaves of Shimei fled to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, “Look, your slaves are in Gath.”

• 1 Kings 11:17

  Adad fled, he and some Edomite men of his father’s servants with him, to go to Egypt; Hadad was a little boy.

• 1 Kings 11:23

  And Elohim raised up for him an opponent, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from Hadadezer king of Zobah, his lord.

• 1 Kings 11:40

  And Solomon sought to put to death Jeroboam; and Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

• 1 Kings 12:2

  And it happened when Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it —and he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt—

• 1 Chronicles 8:13

  and Beriah and Shema; they were the heads of the fathers’ houses of the inhabitants of Aijalon; they put to flight the inhabitants of Gath.

• 1 Chronicles 12:15

  These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month, when it was overflowing all its banks; and they put to flight all those of the valleys, to the east and to the west.

• 2 Chronicles 10:2

  And it happened when Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it —and he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of Solomon the king— that Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

• Nehemiah 6:11

  But I said, “Should a man like me flee? And who is there like me who would go into the temple and live? I will not go in.”

And 25 more times.