Is Deborah wife of Barak?

Question

In Judges 4:4 (NASB)

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

In Judges 4:6 (NASB)

Now she sent word and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, has indeed commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun.

According to the Outline of Biblical Usage

• Lapidoth = "torches"

• Barak = "lightning" or "lightning flash"

Could they be the same person?

Answer 1

I would suggest that Deborah was NOT married to Barak for the following reasons:

• The two lived in different places: Deborah was from Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; Barak was Kedesh in Naphtali. These are far apart.
• The two words quoted by the OP as related are not etymologically related but only vaguely semantically related.

Ellicott says this of the name Lapidoth, which occurs nowhere else, means “flames,” “lamps,” or “splendours;” and Rashi says that she was called “a woman of lamps,” from making the wicks for the lamps of the sanctuary.

Again, Ellicott suggests Barak.—The name means “lightning” (Jos., Antt.), as does Barca, the family name of Hannibal and Hasdrubal. So in Virgil, the Scipios are called “two lightnings of war.” (Comp. Boanerges, Mark 3:17.)

To call these two meanings the same is to stretch the meanings too far.