Wednesday Bible Study- J is for Jabez

This week is going to be a bit more light-hearted, and a lot more speculative.  Many of you know the name Jabez from the book, The Prayer of Jabez, that came out back in 2000.  It was basically a self help book based on a prayer said by an otherwise-unknown gentleman of that name, tucked into a deep well of genealogy:

1Ch 4:9  Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." 
1Ch 4:10  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. 

Author Bruce Wilkerson dissected the prayer to show what a powerful prayer it can be in all our lives.  What I am going to do is ask the question that has always bugged me since then:

"WHO is he, and HOW did his prayer get tucked in here like this?"

In the course of looking into this, I learned several good rules when it comes to deciphering these genealogies.  And they start right with the opening verse of the chapter:

1Ch 4:1  The sons of Judah: Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. 

This is not exactly accurate- and you learn this if you go back two chapters to the actual line of Judah.  Thus, Lesson #1- sometimes when you get a line up of "sons", they are actually the line of the first guy.  Perez WAS the son of Judah- through his daughter-in-law Tamar and that whole lovely story.  Hezron, however, was the son of Perez, Carmi was the son of Hezron, Hur was Carmi's boy (whose other son was Achan who screwed up the first battle at Ai for Israel), and so on.  The author is trying to trace Judah's significant line here, and goes through Perez.  For us, we take a turn at Hezron.  Because when you go back a couple of chapters, this great-great-great grandson of Abraham decided to get a new wife late in life:

1Ch 2:21  Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was sixty years old, and she bore him Segub. 

Now, one thing I am learning is Lesson # 2- Names are important; and sometimes they aren't actually names.  You see, in a lot of cases these "names" must be after-the-fact descriptions of what they became- and that becomes HUGE later on in my tale.  For now, though, it gave me a chuckle, because Machir means "salesman", and thus old man Hezron married the salesman's daughter, which I can't help but think became part of one of the oldest jokes in the book.

But, see, while Segub goes on to father Jair, who becomes someone important (founded a bunch of cities), it is the OTHER child that Hezron has with his "salesman's daughter" that we go after:

1Ch 2:24  After the death of Hezron, Caleb went in to Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa. 

Now this whole verse is kinda screwy, as Caleb is Hezron's son.  The ESV totally blew the meaning here; let's try it again by the literal translation:

1Ch 2:24  And after the death of Hezron in Caleb-ephratah, then Abiah, Hezron's wife bore to him Ashur the father of Tekoa. 

Lesson #3 being, Run every question through the literal translations, shows us the whole sense.  Ephratah was Hezron's first wife, and his home town was then called by her name- later on known as Bethlehem.  Caleb was living there, and Abiah or Abijah was the salesman's daughter who was left pregnant when old man Hezron died.  She gave birth while living in Caleb's house, and this second son was Ashhur (one or two Hs, your choice).  But the "father of Tekoa" part brings us to lesson #4.  

And that is, sometimes "father of" can mean you founded a city, or you started a family line.  This time, it means he founded the city of Tekoa, 4 miles south of Bethlehem.  And this is the limit of nice things we will have to say about Ashhur.  His name means "black" and I have a feeling that this is a character reference.  Observe:  Born posthumously, he ends up being a big scoundrel.  Why do I say that?  Well, lack of a father's guidance tells you he was kind of an "ugly step-child", but more, we next look at his two wives.  Now I think that the names passed to us of these two women were given by Ashhur to posterity, and I think it shows what an ass he was.

One wife was named Naarah, which basically means, "the girl."  The other is named Helah, which means- believe it or not- "rust" or scum".

Nice guy, eh?

But now here's the thing, and the reason that I believe Ashhur was responsible for THEIR names- we look at their SONS' names.  Helah named her sons that were DEFINITELY mentioned, Zereth (meaning splendor), Ethnan (gift, reward), and Jezoar (he will shine).  I believe what we have here is a good, God-loving woman- and thus Ashhur the Black's low opinion of her.

Naarah's choices, on the other hand, are more like the same "call 'em this" deal that Ashhur used on his wives.  Only two of them are for sure names:  Ahuzam (seized, seizure, no doubt a play on how Ashhur 'acquired' Naarah), and Hepher (shame; must have took after Daddy).  The third one named is Temani, "of the south", and I'll come back to him in a bit.  The last is Haahashtari, which is definitely NOT an name- it comes from an old Persian word for, "the courier".

It seems to me that Naarah was more on Ashhur's level from this, thus she was just "the girl", while the faithful Helah was "scum".  Now lesson number 4 was given me by the commentators, and comes up important in my theory- sometimes a name pops up in close proximity of a family tree; the reason being to give THAT member of the tree a little more emphasis.  Thus, we find a fellow named Coz sandwiched between this story of Ashhur's and Jabez's appearance.  The commentators felt that probably Coz was a fourth son of Helah; and here's where we demonstrate that first rule again:

1Ch 4:8  And Coz fathered Anub, and Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel, the son of Harum. 

So they figure that Harum must be a great grandson down the way, like how the chapter opened with the line FROM (not of) Judah.  But here's the funny thing about Coz; if he is a fourth son of Helah, he is certainly set apart from the others in name, for HIS name means "thorn".

NOW, sit that next to Jabez...

 And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore with sorrow. 

Jabez means, "to grieve; sorrowful."  But more important, look at the word used here by his mother for 'sorrow':

From H6087; an earthen vessel; usually (painful) toil; also a pang (whether of body or mind): - grievous, idol, labor, sorrow.

So she had hard pangs- hard labor- delivering Jabez.  Like a "thorn", perhaps?

Is Coz the same as Jabez?  Remember, the speculation was that Coz was another son of Helah, but set apart for the narrative...

 And Jabez was more honorable than his brothers....

More honorable than 'splendor', 'a gift', 'the one who shines'?

Mind you this is all speculation, and Jabez might not be related to any of these people.  But for sake of argument, what if he wasn't Helah's son, but Naarah's?  Let's go back a few steps, to the son called Temani.  This means, 'man of the south', like I said, and is also the word for Teman, a town waaaay in the south, in Edom.  This is where Eliphaz, the buddy of Job came from; and apparently (Eliphaz aside) was known for the wisdom of its people.  Look in Jeremiah 49...

Jer 49:7  So says Jehovah of Hosts concerning Edom: Is wisdom no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished? 

Now Teman is a LONG way off from the rest of our story; and what was it exactly that Jabez asked God for?

1Ch 4:10  And Jabez called to the God of Israel, saying, If indeed You would bless me, and make my border larger, and Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil so that it may not grieve me! And God gave him what he asked. 

Food for thought.  Our lesson from this whole thing is threefold:

1- There are some really interesting things to find in the genealogies, if you are willing to dig.

2- Love is something PASSED DOWN, not just born there.  (If indeed the Helah connection is correct.)

3- Kids, don't do this at home.  There are commentators and scholars that do this for a living.  See what they say before going 'prospecting'.