A compound of YHWH (H3068) and kābêd (H3513, to be heavy/glorious). The name means 'Yahweh is glory' or 'YHWH is honored.' Jochebed is the mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam — making her the mother of Israel's greatest prophet, high priest, and prophetess.
Jochebed appears at the precise moment when Pharaoh's decree demands the death of every Hebrew male newborn. Her act of faith — crafting an ark of papyrus, waterproofing it, and placing her infant son Moses in the Nile — is an act of defiant trust in Yahweh's glory. Her very name declares that YHWH holds the glory. Hebrews 11:23 identifies her and Amram's faith explicitly: 'By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child.' She is the first person in Scripture whose name contains YHWH — making her a symbolic first bearer of the covenant name. The theological implication is that the exodus — the defining act of divine liberation — was born in a mother's faith. God's glory entered history through one woman's trust.