Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers.Jabez is introduced in the genealogies of Judah, a tribe known for its leadership and prominence in Israel's history. The term "honorable" suggests a reputation for integrity and righteousness, qualities highly valued in biblical narratives. This distinction implies that Jabez's character set him apart from his siblings, possibly indicating a life of faithfulness and devotion to God. The emphasis on honor may also reflect the cultural importance of reputation and legacy in ancient Israelite society. The mention of brothers suggests a familial context, where sibling relationships often highlight themes of rivalry or distinction, as seen in stories like Joseph and his brothers in Genesis.
His mother had named him Jabez, saying,
The act of naming in biblical times carried significant weight, often reflecting circumstances of birth or prophetic insights into a person's future. The name "Jabez" is derived from a Hebrew root meaning "pain" or "sorrow," indicating that his mother experienced significant distress during childbirth. This practice of naming based on birth circumstances is seen elsewhere in Scripture, such as with Benjamin, whose mother Rachel named him Ben-Oni, meaning "son of my sorrow," before his father Jacob renamed him. The mother's role in naming highlights the maternal influence and the emotional and physical challenges of childbirth in ancient times.
“Because I bore him in pain.”
The phrase underscores the physical and emotional toll of childbirth, a common theme in biblical narratives. Pain in childbirth is first mentioned inGenesis 3:16 as part of the consequences of the Fall, linking Jabez's story to the broader narrative of human suffering and redemption. The acknowledgment of pain also reflects the reality of life in a fallen world, where joy and sorrow often coexist. This context may suggest that Jabez's life, marked by a name associated with pain, would be one of overcoming adversity, a theme resonant with the biblical message of hope and divine intervention. The mention of pain could also foreshadow the transformative power of prayer and faith, as Jabez later calls on God for blessing and deliverance.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
JabezA man noted for his honor and integrity, more so than his brothers. His name, meaning "pain" or "sorrow," was given by his mother due to the circumstances of his birth.
2.
Jabez's MotherShe named her son Jabez, reflecting the pain she experienced during childbirth. Her perspective highlights the cultural significance of names in biblical times.
3.
The Tribe of JudahJabez is mentioned in the genealogies of the tribe of Judah, indicating his lineage and the importance of his account within the context of Israel's history.
Teaching Points
The Power of a NameNames in biblical times often reflected circumstances or prophetic insights. Consider how names and labels affect identity and self-perception today.
Honor in God's EyesJabez was more honorable than his brothers, suggesting that God values integrity and righteousness over worldly success or status.
Overcoming AdversityDespite being named for pain, Jabez rose above his circumstances, teaching us that our past or the labels others place on us do not define our future.
The Importance of PrayerJabez's account continues with a powerful prayer, reminding us of the importance of seeking God's blessing and guidance in our lives.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of 1 Chronicles 4:9?
2.How does Jabez's prayer in 1 Chronicles 4:9 inspire your own prayers?
3.What does Jabez's name reveal about his mother's experience and expectations?
4.How can Jabez's request for blessing guide your daily petitions to God?
5.In what ways does Jabez's story connect with other biblical prayers for blessing?
6.How can you apply Jabez's faith and trust in God's provision today?
7.Why is Jabez described as more honorable than his brothers in 1 Chronicles 4:9?
8.What significance does Jabez's prayer hold in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10?
9.How does 1 Chronicles 4:9 reflect on the importance of names in biblical times?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from 1 Chronicles 4?
11.In 1 Chronicles 4:9–10, why do we only hear about Jabez’s miraculous blessing here, with no corroborating historical or archaeological evidence?
12.How many stalls of horses did Solomon have? (1 Kings 4:26 vs. 2 Chronicles 9:25)
13.Why do the numbers listed in 2 Chronicles 9:25 about Solomon's horses and chariots differ from related passages like 1 Kings 4:26?
14.Why does 1 Kings 4:26 mention 40,000 stalls for Solomon's horses, while 2 Chronicles 9:25 records only 4,000?What Does 1 Chronicles 4:9 Mean
Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers.• “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers.”
• Honor in Scripture rises from a life that fears God and walks in obedience. Compare1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor Me I will honor,” andProverbs 22:4, where humility and the fear of the LORD bring “wealth and honor and life.”
• The chronicler pauses the genealogies to spotlight Jabez, signaling God’s esteem for a man whose heart was set apart.
• Verse 10 shows Jabez praying boldly—and God granting his request—demonstrating that the LORD rewards faith (Hebrews 11:6) and delights in those who seek Him (Psalm 34:10).
• Practically, the text calls believers to cultivate character over pedigree or circumstances, knowing “a good name is to be chosen over great riches” (Proverbs 22:1).
His mother had named him Jabez.• “His mother had named him Jabez”.
• Names in the Bible often capture destiny or testimony. ConsiderGenesis 17:5 (Abram to Abraham) orMatthew 1:21 (Jesus “will save His people from their sins”).
• A mother’s voice shapes a child’s identity, yet God’s calling can override any earthly label (Isaiah 62:2,Revelation 2:17).
• The prominence Jabez attains in Scripture shows that God’s purpose is not boxed in by human naming, reminding us of1 Corinthians 1:27, where God chooses the unlikely to display His glory.
Because I bore him in pain.• “Because I bore him in pain.”
• The phrase echoesGenesis 3:16, where pain in childbirth entered the human story through sin. Jabez’s very name (“He makes sorrow”) embodies the brokenness of a fallen world.
• Other mothers marked sorrow in naming—Rachel called her dying son Ben-oni (“son of my sorrow”) before Jacob renamed him Benjamin (Genesis 35:18); Phinehas’s wife cried “Ichabod” at Israel’s defeat (1 Samuel 4:21).
• Yet God turns pain into purpose. Jabez does not remain defined by grief; his honor and answered prayer (1 Chronicles 4:10) testify that “weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
• For believers, this assures us that personal history, even birthed in hardship, can become a platform for God’s blessing (Romans 8:28).
summaryJabez entered the world under the shadow of pain, yet Scripture highlights him as “more honorable” than his brothers. His mother’s sorrow-laden naming could not confine the man whose faith won divine favor. The verse teaches that God sees and rewards heart-level honor, redeems the sting of a fallen world, and writes a greater story than our beginnings foresee.
(9)
More honourablethan hisbrethren.--Comp. what is said of Hamor son of Shechem in
Genesis 34:19.
His brethren.--Perhaps the sons of Coz. The form of the Hebrew verb implies connection with1Chronicles 4:8.
His mothercalled his name . . .--Comp.Genesis 29:32-35, and especiallyGenesis 35:18.
With sorrow.--Rather,pain. . . .
Verse 9. - This is not less true of the name of vers. 9, 10, which, however, has made its own mark amid the whole scene. The episode of these two verses, offering itself amid what should seem, superficially, a dry mass of dead names, is welcome and grateful as the oasis of the desert, and it warns us that life lies hidden at our every footfall on this ground, spread over though it is with monument and inscription, and hollow, as we thought, with the deadest of the dead. But the glimpse of old real life given us in this brief fragment of a biography is refreshing and is very suggestive. It seems an insufficient and unnatural method of accounting for the suddenness of the appearance of this episode to suppose ('Speaker's Commentary,'
in lee.) that the name of Jahez was well known, from any cause, to those for whom Chronicles may be supposed to have been primarily intended. We prefer by far
one account of it, viz. that the work in our hands is not in its original complete state; or, variously put, that it
is in its uncompleted original state. No root corresponding to the characters of this name in present order is known; it is possible that some euphonic reason makes the name
יַעְבּצ out of the real word (future Kal)
יַעִצֵב,
i.e. he causes pains. We cannot suppose there would be any "play" appreciable on a transposition of alphabetical characters for
mere play's sake. The resemblance that almost each part of this brief and abruptly introduced narration bears to incidents recorded in Genesis (
Genesis 34:19;
Genesis 33:20;
Genesis 4:25;
Genesis 29:32;
Genesis 28:20) and Exodus speaks for itself, and strongly countenances the supposition that it is a genuine deposit of the genuinely olden history of Judah. The mother's reason for the naming of the child; the language and matter and form (
Genesis 17:18-20;
Exodus 32:32) of the prayer of the child, when presumably he was no longer a child; and the discriminating use of the words
Elohim (ver. 10)
of Israel, as comps, red with the name
Jehovah (
1 Chronicles 2:3; 5:41), generally found here, - all help to produce this impression, although some of these particulars would carry little conviction by themselves;
e.g. a mother's reasons for assigning the name of her child long outlived the earlier times alone. Upon the whole, and regarding the passage in its present place, we may say that it must be very much
misplaced, or else must be understood to connect Jabez with some branch of the family of Coz. There is the more room to assume this in the vagueness of the last preceding clause, "The families of Aharhel the son of Harum." The origin of the theories of some of the older Jewish writers, to the effect that Jabez was a doctor in the law, with a school of scribes around him, is probably to be found in the desire to find a connection between his proper name, Jabez, and the
place so named (
1 Chronicles 2:55), and where, as we are told, "families of scribes dwelt," belonging to the Kenites. That these were connected with Bethlehem, through Salma, and that Jabez of our present passage was also of a family connected with Bethlehem, is worthy of notice, but is not enough by a long way to countenance the thought, in spite of Targum and Talmud (Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,'
sub vet.). The Targum, as well here as in
1 Chronicles 2:55, identifies Jabez with Othniel "son of Keuaz" (
Joshua 15:17;
Judges 1:13;
Judges 3:9), or more probably "the Kenizzite" merely; but there is nothing to sustain such an identification. The description, he was more honourable than his brethren, finds a close parallel, so far as the word
honourable goes, in
Genesis 34:19; although the honourableness of Shechem, the person there in question, does not come out to anything like the same advantage with that of Jabez, nor at all in the same direction. The word, however, is precisely the same, is often used elsewhere, and uniformly in a good sense, although the range of its application is wide. The essential idea of the root appears to be "weight." The phrase may therefore be supposed to answer to our expressive phrase, a "man of weight "
- the weight being sometimes due
chiefly to character, at other times to position and wealth in the first place, though not entirely divorced from considerations of character. We may safely judge, from what follows, that the intention in our present passage is to describe Jabez as a man of more ability and nobility than his brethren. It can scarcely be doubted that the meaning that lies on the surface is the correct interpretation, when it is said that his mother named him Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. The sorrow refers to unusual pains of travail, not to any attendant circumstances of domestic trial, as
e.g. that the time of his birth was coincident with her own widowhood, as happened to the wife of Phinehas, when she named her offspring "Ichabod" (
1 Samuel 4:19-22).
Parallel Commentaries ...
Hebrew
Now Jabezיַעְבֵּ֔ץ(ya‘·bêṣ)Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3258:Jabez -- a descendant of Judah, also a place in Judahwasוַיְהִ֣י(way·hî)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961:To fall out, come to pass, become, bemore honorableנִכְבָּ֖ד(niḵ·bāḏ)Verb - Nifal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 3513:To be heavy, weighty, or burdensomethan his brothers.מֵאֶחָ֑יו(mê·’e·ḥāw)Preposition-m | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 251:A brother, )His motherוְאִמּ֗וֹ(wə·’im·mōw)Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 517:A mother, )had namedקָרְאָ֨ה(qā·rə·’āh)Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7121:To call, proclaim, readhim Jabez,יַעְבֵּץ֙(ya‘·bêṣ)Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3258:Jabez -- a descendant of Judah, also a place in Judahsaying,לֵאמֹ֔ר(lê·mōr)Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 559:To utter, say“Becauseכִּ֥י(kî)Conjunction
Strong's 3588:A relative conjunctionI bore [him]יָלַ֖דְתִּי(yā·laḏ·tî)Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 3205:To bear young, to beget, medically, to act as midwife, to show lineagein pain.”בְּעֹֽצֶב׃(bə·‘ō·ṣeḇ)Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6090:An idol, pain
Links
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OT History: 1 Chronicles 4:9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers: (1 Chron. 1Ch iCh i Ch 1 chr 1chr) 
