Jabez …: The listing of Judah’s descendants is briefly interrupted in verses 9-10 by a more detailed narrative concerning Jabez, an especially noteworthy person in the list. These two verses contain information about the character of Jabez, as well as something of his background, and provide in some detail a prayer that he gave. Like Koz in the previous verse, Jabez is introduced abruptly without having been mentioned previously. In order to create a smoother transition between verses 8 and 9, translations have added various words and phrases such as “There was a man named Jabez…” (Good News Translation, New Century Version, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), “A certain Jabez…” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), and “A man named Jabez…” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Other languages may require a similar introduction. In some languages it will be helpful to make it clear that Jabez was a man, as in Good News Translation. This is especially true for languages in which the third person masculine and feminine pronouns are the same, so that the pronoun his would be ambiguous.

Was more honorable than his brothers: This comparison between Jabez and his brothers may be understood in slightly different ways; for example, “ranked higher than his brothers” (Revised English Bible), “the most respected son in his family” (Contemporary English Version), or “was better known than his brothers” (New Jerusalem Bible). The basic sense is that Jabez was more honored or more respected. The word brothers may be understood either in the broader sense of “relatives” or in the more literal sense of male members of his immediate family. It is most likely that the latter is intended in this context.

And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain”: With the transposition of the final two consonants, the name Jabez in Hebrew (yaʿbets) sounds like the Hebrew word for pain (ʿotseb). In most cases the only way to inform the reader of the relationship between the name Jabez and the word for pain is through a footnote as in Good News Translation.

Since the mother of Jabez named him at birth, Good News Translation uses the past perfect tense for the verb called, saying “had given.” In some languages the quotation of the mother may be introduced by the words “I am giving him this name because….” In certain languages the direct quotation of the mother will be seen as unnatural. If this is the case, the Good News Translation model may be an appropriate one to follow.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .