Hidden in the middle of nine chapters of genealogical lists in I Chronicles, almost as if to show a way out of genealogical boundaries, is an account of a man, Jabez, whose prayer averted the curse of an ominous name.
Jabez in Hebrew means "trouble" or "sorrow." His mother had named him thus, "because," she said, "I bare him with sorrow." I Chron. 4:9; By giving him the ominous name which identified him wherever he went, she bound him with her own concept of him. Like Jabez, little mortals are conceived by other mortals—their form, size, and intelligence partly determined by a genetic code before they know enough to protest. Physical conception forms one of the limits bounding the mortal self.
We are told that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. Perhaps it was because he refused to be bound by a mortal's conception of him. Obviously he found the mortal concept too restrictive. He petitioned God, "Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!" v. 10; Praying "that thine hand might be with me" indicates he had felt separated from God. Instead of blaming his human parents, he lifted his thought to his true source and prayed that God would bless him with dominion over evil prophecies, so that they might not grieve him.
