Suggested reading before you begin: 1 Chronicles 4; Psalm 90; James 4.
(All quotations below are from the New International Version unless noted.)
The fourth chapter of 1 Chronicles looks, at first sight, like a phone book from the ancient world. Most western readers hurry past it. Yet the Chronicler is building a quiet argument:
Hebrew writers delighted in rhythm and pattern. Notice the repeated phrase “sons of…”—a litany that stops only when a life lesson demands our attention. The genealogy is a river, and in verse 9 the river pauses at a waterfall named Jabez.
Verses 9-10 read like an early morning bell in the stillness of names:
“Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.”
• The name Jabez (יַעְבֵּץ, yaʿbēṣ) echoes the
Hebrew word for pain, ʿeṣeb. The Chronicler sets up a
pun: the boy branded “Pain” dares to ask God to reverse his label.
• Jabez asks that he be spared from hā-raʿah (“the
evil”)—a term broad enough to mean physical hurt, moral evil, or the
sorrow his name embodies.
The chronicler uses a simple closing sentence—“And God granted his request”—as if to say: Yes, heaven bends toward earth even in a list of names. For Israel in post-exile stress, that reminder was gold.
The genealogy resumes with people who:
No priest or prophet stands in these verses—only artisans. The Chronicler is preaching that vocation, offered to God, is a form of worship.
Simeon never shone like Judah or Levi. By David’s day its land lay inside Judah’s borders (Joshua 19:1-9). Yet 1 Chronicles 4 honors Simeon’s:
The lesson is quiet but sharp: obscurity is not failure when God weighs the work.
| Theme | Where it appears | Wider biblical echo |
|---|---|---|
| God remembers every person | Whole genealogy | Luke 12:7 – “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” |
| Prayer can change a story | Jabez | James 5:16 – “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” |
| Blessing is meant to overflow | “Enlarge my territory” | 2 Corinthians 9:11 – “You will be enriched… so you can be generous on every occasion.” |
| Work as worship | King’s potters, linen workers | Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do… do it for the Lord.” |
| Hope for the overlooked | Tribe of Simeon | 1 Corinthians 1:28 – God chooses “the lowly things of this world.” |
Early church readers such as Origen saw in Jabez a foreshadowing of the Gentiles: once named “Pain,” now enlarged by grace. Medieval writers used the text to urge monks to pray for inner territory—the growth of virtue. Modern Protestant thinkers often apply it to mission or church planting, cautioning, however, against reading it as a blank check for personal comfort.
“Take My Life, and Let It Be” (Frances Ridley Havergal, 1874)
Sing especially the lines:
“Take my hands and let them move / At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my moments and my days, / Let them flow in ceaseless praise.”
Lord of Abraham and Jabez,
You count every star and every unknown name.
Break the power of labels that bind us.
Enlarge the borders of our love,
Set Your hand upon our work,
And guard us from the evil that steals joy.
May our hidden days, like Simeon’s,
Bring lasting fruit for Your kingdom.
Through Jesus Christ, in whom every promise is “Yes,”
Amen.
Narrated version of this devotional on 1 Chronicles Chapter 4