And Jabez was more honoured than his brethren; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with pain.
In a long list of names in Judah's family line, one man gets praise no one else receives. His mother had named him after the pain of his birth, so the name Scripture honours is a name of sorrow.
Chronicles is mostly a list of names. One writer values the short notes tucked among them.
It is sweet and helpful to the soul to trace out the brief notes of what divine grace had done in one person and another. If this were only a human book, such notes would seem out of place among long lists of names. These were people who walked their often lowly paths, with faith at work and the conscience active. The passage about Jabez is of this kind. He was more honourable than his brothers because he set the Lord before him.
The mother's words explain the name. One commentator reads her choice as an act of faith — she owned the sentence God pronounced in Eden and passed its memory on in her son's name.
Jabez's mother had borne him with sorrow and had named him Jabez: "Sorrow." She had herself experienced the consequences of sin. She acknowledged the curse that followed for man, God's righteous sentence on the woman whom the serpent had deceived. For God had said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children" (Gen. 3:16). Jabez's mother accepted this sentence by faith. She made so little effort to escape it that she passed it on to her son, giving him the name "Sorrow." On man's side the fall destroyed all hope of happiness, and sorrow was his fatal portion.
His name means pain, yet the verse calls him honourable. One writer asks where that honour came from.
The very first words about Jabez are, "Jabez was more honorable than his brothers." The Spirit of God leaves us in no doubt about the reason for this praise from God. His name means "sorrowful," or "causing pain." So the reason he was more honourable than his brothers had nothing to do with what he was by nature. He was more honourable than his brothers because of his dealings with God.
One writer looks at another man Scripture calls honourable, and finds the same quality there.
When David was fleeing from Saul, Ahimelech the priest fed David and his followers. The priest also spoke up for David, saying to Saul, "And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house?" It seems to me that in David faithfulness was a mark that showed he was honourable... Yes, that is what it means to be honourable: to be faithful to God, faithful to the saints in relation to the truth, faithful to what you know.
Why were the brothers not honoured too? One writer answers with a question of his own.
"Jabez was more honorable than his brothers." Is this a hint that his brothers had forgotten that God was the Giver of their good things? Here the record does not say that they prayed, and they have no such answer. God grants Jabez what he requested. Among that rebellious and stiff-necked people there were men of faith, and Jabez was one.
Who was Jabez, and where did he come from? One writer notes that the chapter never links him to Judah by birth.
No connecting link is given in chapter 4 to show that he was born of Judah, yet his name appears in the middle of that family register. Was the land the Lord enlarged in answer to his prayer named after him? If so, 1 Chronicles 2:55 supports the idea that he belonged to the Kenites. They were the descendants of Hobab, who came with Israel at Moses' express invitation, and their children lived among the people of Judah. A Kenite could not claim a portion in Israel on the ground that he was of Israel; yet he might call on the God of Israel, and ask to be blessed with Israel.
By now the kingdom lay in ruins. One writer shows what God still did then.
Wherever there has been faith, God has blessed His people individually. Jabez, the son of affliction, seeking blessing in the presence of the God of Israel, did not fail to find it... So the power of the king was gone, and the order of the kingdom with it. Yet wherever there was faith, God blessed those of His people who trusted in Him.
- Sorrow named. His mother accepted the pain of Genesis 3 and wrote it into her son's name. His story starts with the curse admitted, not avoided.
- Sorrow turned. His honour came from his dealings with God, not from his birth or his name.
- Honour defined. David shows what the word holds: faithfulness to God, to the saints, and to what you already know.
- Honour tested. The record does not say his brothers prayed, and they receive no answer. The difference in the list was who called on God.
- Honour recorded. When the kingdom lay in ruins, God still blessed faith one person at a time — and kept one man's name in the record.
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that thou wouldest richly bless me, and enlarge my border, and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God brought about what he had requested.
A single prayer breaks into the long family lists of Chronicles, and it comes from a man whose name means sorrow. He asks God for four things, and receives all four.
Chronicles lists a people under God's condemnation.
What has been preserved here of the genealogies of the people is a moving remnant, through grace, of those who had fallen under a sad condemnation. It shows us something else: wherever there has been faith, God has blessed His people as individuals. Jabez, the son of affliction, seeking blessing in the presence of the God of Israel, did not fail to find it.
His name appears with no link to the family around it. So who was he, and on what ground could he ask?
Chapter 4 gives no link to show that he was born of Judah. His name simply appears in the middle of Judah's family register. Was that border, which the LORD enlarged in answer to his prayer, named after him? If so, 1 Chronicles 2:55 supports the impression that he belonged to the family of the Kenites, who came with Israel at Moses' invitation and lived among the people of Judah. A Kenite could not claim a share in Israel on the ground that he was of Israel. Yet he might call on the God of Israel, and ask to be blessed with Israel.
Jabez took the curse of sin as a settled fact, and prayed on that ground.
Jabez began with this conviction, and so he was "more honourable than his brothers." Then he "called on the God of Israel." He knew that only the LORD could deliver him from the curse of sin. He knew, moreover, that this deliverance could be so complete that he, Jabez, would be able to be without sorrow!
The first request goes back to the curse itself.
God had cursed man and the earth from which he was taken (Genesis 3:17). He alone could cancel this sentence and replace it with blessing, the first proof that sorrow has ended... "I will bless you," the LORD had said to Abraham. When everything is in ruin, Jabez' faith goes back to the counsels of grace and to the promises of God... In the same way, God has abolished all the consequences of sin through Christ's sacrifice. So we can be blessed in Him with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
He asked for more ground when the nation had taken little.
Here and there these genealogies highlight people whose borders God extended in the promised land. At that time most of the people had failed to conquer their inheritance... So it is with us: our spiritual borders expand in the heavenly sphere while we are on earth. To reach this we must recognise our hopeless ruin. We have shown that we cannot extend our borders ourselves. So we must show humble dependence that relies on the grace of God alone to possess them.
Asking for enlargement is not asking for oneself alone.
"Oh, that you would bless me indeed!" I wish that were our prayer all the time, wanting to receive blessing from God. Why? Just for our own personal advancement? No, first for our encouragement and strengthening, so that we can then be of help to others, because if we have blessing in our souls it is bound to flow out to others.
The third request names the power he counted on.
He does not rely on his natural energy to enlarge his borders, but rather on the power of God. This is all the more striking since he came from a family known for its energy.
The fourth request assumes evil is still here. (The ESV reads "harm"; older translations read "evil.")
The evil that brought sorrow into this world has not disappeared; it is always present. Jabez knows this well, for he does not ask that it be removed, but he wants to be kept from the evil whose existence he sees. Here again, he recognises that it is not his will, but the power of God alone that is able to keep him.
Frank Wallace turns the test to our own sin.
How easy it is to point the finger at someone else and be grieved because they have said or done something wrong! And how easy it is to forget our own failures. Are we grieved when we sin, when we fail? It is a mark of a tender conscience.
So what became of the sorrow in his name?
How could sorrow still remain in the heart of this man of God when God had granted all his requests? No doubt sorrow has not disappeared from the earth, and neither has the evil that caused it. But Jabez' heart was full of the excellent things granted to him, so it had no room for sorrow.
- Sorrow — He carried a name meaning pain, and made that starting point the reason to depend wholly on the LORD.
- Call — He had no claim by birth, yet he could call on the God of Israel and ask to be blessed with Israel.
- Blessing — He asked God to undo the curse. Commentators link this to every spiritual blessing we now have in Christ.
- Border — God enlarges those who first admit they cannot enlarge themselves.
- Kept — He asked not for evil's removal but for God's hand to keep him from it; God granted it all, leaving no room for sorrow.