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1 Chronicles 4 Bible study: Jabez called on the God of Israel
The word "God" first comes in 1 Chronicles in a prayer in the middle of Judah's names. Jabez, named for his mother's sorrow (4:9), asks the God of Israel to bless him and keep him from evil, "that I may not cause pain!", and "God granted him that which he requested" (4:10).
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“Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border! May your hand be with me, and may you keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” God granted him that which he requested.”
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“Jabez's mother named him Jabez because she bore him with sorrow.”
Is that in 1 Chronicles 4, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
A prayer in the middle of the names
For three chapters and eight verses, 1 Chronicles has given mostly names, and in all of them the LORD is named in one verse: Er "was wicked in the LORD’s sight; and he killed him" (2:3). Then, among Judah's families, comes a man with no father named: "Jabez was more honorable than his brothers" (4:9). "Jabez called on the God of Israel" (4:10). It is the first verse in the book with the word "God" (in Hebrew, elohim), and the first prayer it records. He asks God to bless him, to "enlarge my border", for God's hand to be with him, and "keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain" (4:10). Then one line: "God granted him that which he requested" (4:10). The chapter doesn't say why God granted it, or what the blessing and the larger border turned out to be. The next prayer the book records is in the next chapter, when Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh "cried to God in the battle, and he answered them because they put their trust in him" (5:20).
Where it leads to Jesus
Deliver us from the evil one
1 Chronicles 4:10leads toMatthew 6:13
Jabez asked the God of Israel, "may you keep me from evil" (4:10), and "God granted him that which he requested" (4:10). Teaching his disciples on the mountain (Matthew 5:1-2), Jesus said, "Pray like this" (Matthew 6:9), and the prayer he gave them asks, "Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13). Jesus doesn't cite 1 Chronicles 4, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared request, to be kept from evil, and not on a shared word. Some hear in Jabez's request one that Jesus gave all his disciples to pray. Others note that Jabez's word is "evil" (4:10) and Jesus' words are "the evil one" (Matthew 6:13), and read 4:10 as one man's request and Matthew 6:13 within Jesus' own teaching, without looking from one to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Chronicles 4
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Chronicles 4 is waiting in Favor
- Judah's other families, and their work
- Simeon, among Judah's towns
- Born with sorrow, praying not to cause pain
- "Until David's reign" and "to this day"
- A daughter of Pharaoh in Judah's list
- 17 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
יַעְבֵּץYa'betssay ya-BETS
Strong's: "from an unused root probably meaning to grieve; sorrowful", and "the name of an Israelite, and also of a place". The chapter gives its own reason for the name: his mother named him Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him with sorrow" (4:9). In Hebrew sorrow is otsev, and Ya'bets shares three of its letters, ayin, bet and tsade, with bet and tsade the other way round. In the Hebrew Bible the name comes only in 1 Chronicles: three times for this man (4:9-10), and once for a place, "The families of scribes who lived at Jabez" (2:55).
For your group
1 Chronicles 4 Bible study questions
- 1Jabez "called on the God of Israel" and told him plainly what he wanted (4:10). What keeps you from asking God plainly for what you want? What would you ask for this week?
- 2Jabez was named for his mother's sorrow (4:9), and he asked God to keep him from evil, "that I may not cause pain" (4:10). Where are you most likely to cause pain to someone else, and what would it look like to ask God's help there?
- 3The chapter remembers some families by their work: craftsmen (4:14), workers of fine linen (4:21), potters who lived "with the king for his work" (4:23). What work fills your week, and how do you think God sees it?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Chronicles 4 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home