What is the meaning of 1 Chronicles 4:9? 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. Compare 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor Me I will honor,” and Proverbs 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. Consider Genesis 17:5 (Abram to Abraham) or Matthew 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 of 1 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 echoes Genesis 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). summary Jabez 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. |
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