I’ve always found names and their meanings fascinating. While doing my devotions and reading in the book of Isaiah yesterday, I came across an intriguing one. Tucked in the middle of Isaiah 62:4 is the phrase “you will be called Hephzibah”. I’m not a Hebrew scholar so I was delighted to discover a footnote that gave the name’s meaning. Hephzibah means my delight is in her. I realize that the prophet, Isaiah, was referring to the city of Jerusalem when he penned those words but I began to wonder what kind of woman God might call Hephzibah. What kind of woman would delight God?

That’s when I came across the pig’s snout! Proverbs 11:22 says “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.” Whoa! Now that’s a very non Hephzibah image; a woman whose God given inner beauty is wasted like that of pure gold rooting in the mud!

Next I had to pull out my trusty dictionary to find out exactly what discretion means: using or showing good judgement, wise, sensible. Apparently that’s the kind of woman that God delights in. Does that mean that she has to be staid and steady all the time, that we can’t have any fun in life? Absolutely not! After all, a God who would include a gold ring in a pig’s snout in his Word must have a sense of humour. But, I ask myself one more question; am I living my life in such a way that God could call me Hephzibah?

Do you know anyone who is a Hephzibah kind of woman?