Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 2-4.

The first thing I noticed today was that the list of Judah’s descendants at the beginning of chapter two only lists those who descended from his sons by Tamar.  It is only in chapter four, at the end of the list of Judah’s descendants, just before it discusses Simeon’s descendants, that there is any mention of Shelah’s descendants.  I don’t know if that is significant, but I took notice of that fact.  Also of interest is the mention of Jabez is verses nine and ten of chapter four.  There is a book written about Jabez, which to my mind makes more of these two verses than the text supports.  What I find most interesting about Jabez is that he is mentioned in a list of genealogies, but neither his father nor his sons are mentioned.  Even the reference to his brothers does not list them by name.  So, who was Jabez?  We don’t really know.  The passage tells us that he was more honorable than his brothers, but, since the passage does not tell us who his brothers were, that does not tell us much.  However, the passage also tells us that he asked God to enlarge his territory and that God granted his request.  So, while the book about Jabez’ prayer makes more of it than the passage supports, we can learn something from Jabez.  He was honorable and therefore when he asked God to bless him and expand his territory, God  granted his request..  So, if we are honorable in our dealings, we can be sure that God will bless us as well.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.