Echoes of Genesis in 1 Chronicles 4:9–10: An Intertextual and Contextual Reading of Jabez’s Prayer

Abstract

First Chronicles 4:9–10 has not received much sustained scholarly attention, but Bruce Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez has made those two verses both well-known and newly popular in mass-market Christianity. Leaving aside the furor over Wilkinson’s popular treatment, this article elucidates the sense (including overlooked ambiguities in the lexical sense) and structure of this brief passage internal to Chronicles, explores certain intertextual connections between 1 Chron 4:9–10 and selected passages in the book of Genesis, and suggests some possible functions for 1 Chron 4:9–10 and related passages in 1 Chron 4–5 within the socio-historical context of Achaemenid Yehud.