Judah, Jabez and Simeon

"And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 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! And God granted him that which he requested."

Mered marries Bithiah "the daughter of Pharaoh"; the house of linen workers at Ashbea; "These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work."

Simeon's towns, Beersheba, Moladah, Hormah, Ziklag, "were their cities unto the reign of David." Simeonites go to Gedor for pasture, and in Hezekiah's days strike the tents of the Meunim; five hundred go to Mount Seir and destroy the remnant of Amalek.

Jabez

His name sounds like the Hebrew for "pain" (otzev), with letters reversed; his prayer asks that the pain his name carries not come true. A popular modern book made the prayer famous. The library's Greek renders the name Igabès and his mother's words "I bore him like Gabès."

Guilds and royal workshops

Potters working "with the king" may relate to royal pottery production; the lmlk ("belonging to the king") jar handles of late 8th-century Judah show royal administration of storage jars, though no direct link to this verse can be shown.

Simeon absorbed

Simeon's towns lie inside Judah's territory (Joshua 19:1–9); the tribe effectively merged with Judah, as Genesis 49:7 foreshadows.