My church participates in 21 Days of Prayer every January and August with Church of the Highlands. We started this prayer-filled season with a message about Jabez, which piqued my curiosity. Who is this guy? How does he fit into the lineage? What lessons should I learn from his story? What is the meaning of the prayer of Jabez?
The details surrounding Jabez are especially sparse, and those we do have are a bit confusing. There is nothing to connect this oddly-placed anecdote within the larger framework of people, places, and times. And, even his name is a confused mess in Hebrew.
The Prayer of Jabez Scripture
1 Chronicles 4:9-10 contains everything we know about Jabez. The prayer of Jabez comes to us from this passage of scripture, wedged into a dry genealogy for the Tribe of Judah that covers chapters 2-4.
‘Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.’ 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 ESV
This anecdote interrupts an already fragmented genealogy. Many father-son connections are simply missing. As our recent investigation into Zerubbabel revealed, even a powerful ruler can have a confusing genealogy. And, most of the people listed in 1 Chronicles 4 appear nowhere else in scripture.
I have to admit that I failed when I tried to grasp what was going on with this chapter of the genealogy. So, this section of the Pulpit Commentary was a welcome validation of the difficulty of the task.
‘After the large space given to the “sons of David,” of the tribe of Judah, in the previous chapter, this chapter returns for twenty-three verses to group together a few additional ramifications of the same tribe, whose registers were for some reasons, perhaps not very evident, preserved and known.’
The Prayer of Jabez Book
A lot of the modern discourse on this passage has been shaped by The Prayer of Jabez book, written by Pastor Bruce Wilkinson. It has sold over 10 million copies since being published in 2000. I read the book, and I agree with the general ideas it contains.
Those who follow Christ should freely ask for God’s blessing. We should make a daily habit of prayer. And, we should remind ourselves where our help, providence, and protection come from. But, I don’t accept that Jabez’s prayer has a special ability to get God’s attention and approval.
I am also not comfortable with the implication some make from it, that God will give greater wealth to those who pray it. I think Pastor Wilkinson would agree. He directed readers to think of the expansion of their borders as God opening doors to create opportunities for ministry. This was one of the pull quotes from the book:
Do we really understand how far the American Dream is from Gods dream for us?
That question reminded me of a sermon by John Piper. What a waste to view the blessing of God only through the lens of acquiring monetary wealth! Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon on one phrase from the prayer: “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” And, I love this section of it:
“And anything which helps me to glorify God is a blessing, indeed. If I am sick and that helps me to praise Him, it is a blessing, indeed. If I am poor, and I can serve Him better in poverty than in wealth, it is a blessing, indeed. If I am in contempt I will rejoice in that day and leap for joy, if it is for Christ’s sake—for then, it is a blessing, indeed.”
Rabbinic Commentary on the Name Jabez
Rabbinic commentary seems to agree that Jabez is worth emulating in our own walk with God. The medieval scholar Radak wrote a commentary on the Chronicles. He notes that the town referenced in 1 Chronicles 2:55 could have been named after the same Jabez. This phenomenon does occur in scripture, where a location or even a nation gets named after one person.
In Hebrew, the name for Jabez is ya’bets יעבץ. Scripture says his mother named him Jabez because ‘she bore him in pain’. But, the word for pain is atsav עצב. Jabez has all the same letters, but two have been transposed. His name should be Jazeb or ya’tsev יעצב.
Language note: I transcribe Hebrew into English in the way that makes the most sense to me. I use apostrophes to denote glottal stops. In English, these are conveyed as a slight pause in the pronunciation, which most frequently occur with the guttural letters alef א, hey ה, and ayin ע. The proper pronunciation in Hebrew is a little more involved, but if you think of the English phrase “uh oh” as having a glottal stop in the middle, you’ll be on the right track.
Radak and Rashi both observed the spelling issue with Jabez’s Hebrew name, but neither expressed concern. Each of them noted other names that exist in scripture, spelled with creative license. One of them is Ben-Oni who became Benjamin. To me, this explanation doesn’t quite fit.
So, I wonder if the nonsensical name carries meaning of its own. Perhaps it reflects the answered prayer of Jabez. Perhaps the transposition of the letters is a foreshadowing for the end of his story. A man named after ‘pain’ asked God to keep pain from him. God granted the request.
Now, his name is spelled in such a way as to mean something other than pain. Could there be providence in the misspelling of his name? I would not assert it as fact, but I think it makes as much sense as any other explanation I have read.
A Weighty Pun
The story of Jabez starts with the observation that he was more honorable than his brothers. The verb used to ascribe honor to Jabez is nikhbad נכבד. This word comes from the root kaved כבד, which can describe literal and figurative weight. Some interpreters see a pun in this.
Instead of being more honorable, they interpret the text as ‘heavier’. As Rodney Clapp explained in a response to Wilkinson’s book, “To put it bluntly, Jabez was a fat baby.” This interpretation would fit with his mother’s travails in childbirth.
But, the verb in question uses the niph’al conjugation of the kaved כבד root. Niphal is the simple passive or reflexive verb form in Hebrew (i.e. he buried vs. he was buried). Every appearance of this verb form in scripture denotes honor when applied to people.
Only 2 Samuel 13:25 has the potential to confuse us, as the word nikhbad נכבד translates to ‘burdensome’. But, despite the same spelling, this instance is not actually a niph’al form. It conjugates the pa’al form into future tense for the first-person plural (i.e. we will burden you).
The pun which Jabez’s detractors see in this passage seems unlikely.
Despite the lack of a pun here, I believe that scriptural language often necessitates that we weigh multiple interpretations, through the lens that more than one can be correct. Jesus himself taught in parables which required people to consider the meaning beyond his immediate words.
I wonder if any of the people who heard the Parable of the Talents in person later argued against a figurative interpretation. “HE WAS TALKING ABOUT MONEY!” they would have shouted. But, Jesus was also talking about so much more.
The word talent means what it does today because Jesus made it more than money in his parable.
Should We Pray Like Jabez?
So, should we pray like Jabez? What are the lessons we can learn from this passage?
- We should pray. It does not matter the circumstances. The Bible instructs us to make our requests known to the Father, to cast our cares on Him, and to pray without ceasing.
- We should seek God’s blessing. Jabez acknowledged that God was greater than him; only the greater can bless the lesser. A relationship with God should drive us toward loving obedience, and keep us properly positioned to receive His blessing.
- God is our provider and protector. The Psalms contain many references to these facets of God’s nature. And, Jesus taught his followers in Matthew 7:11, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
- God answers prayer. He does not always answer prayer by granting the request, as he did for Jabez. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” from 2 Corinthians 12 shows us that. But, He does respond to prayer.
- We should be cautious to condemn liturgical prayers. There’s nothing wrong with sincere recitation. When Jesus taught his followers how to pray, he also gave them the Lord’s Prayer to recite. There can be value in having something to fall back on, when your own words fail.
Are there other lessons which you have found in studying this passage of scripture?
Leave a Reply