Bible Strands
1 Chronicles 4:9
Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Chronicler places Jabez within the genealogy of Judah to interrupt a standard ancestral list. The narrative shifts from tracking clan origins to highlighting an individual whose life trajectory diverges from his family's record.
The words — The Hebrew נִכְבָּ֖ד (nikh.Bad) translates literally as "honored" or "more honorable," while יַעְבֵּץ (ya'.Betz) derives from a root meaning "pain." The text states that Jabez's mother named him based on her experience of labor, establishing a direct linguistic link between his identity and suffering.
The thread — This naming pattern appears in Genesis 35:18, where Rachel names her son Ben-oni before dying, and in 1 Samuel 4:21, where a woman names her son Ichabod to signal departed glory. Both instances, like the Genesis 3:16 reference to childbirth pain, tie a child's name to maternal distress or divine consequence.
Why it lands — The verse presents a factual contrast between a name denoting pain and a life marked as more honorable than his brothers. It requires the reader to note how the Chronicler uses onomastics to signal a break in genealogical expectation before introducing Jabez's subsequent prayer in the following verse.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 4:21 And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
- Genesis 35:18 And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin.
- Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
- Genesis 34:19 The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
- 1 Chronicles 7:23 And again he slept with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. So he named him Beriah, because tragedy had come upon his house.
- Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.
- Isaiah 43:4 Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life.