The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, and Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul;
"Jabez ... named in sorrow"  (1 Chronicles 4:9).  The mother's statement that she bore him in sorrow is "probably a reference to unusual suffering in childbirth."[3]  Jabez's prayer is one of the noblest found in the O.T., and has often been used as a sermon text.  Basing his criticism on an alleged meaning of the word `evil,' Elmslie called this prayer un-Christian.  "His prayer was crude and selfish.  His conscience was not troubled by the thought that others would suffer if he gained his wishes."[4]  We do not agree with such opinions, because God's answering Jabez's prayer indicates the purity of the petitioner's motives.