1 Chron. 4:9-10

Almost nothing is said in scripture of Jabez, and yet a few years ago he still became a cottage industry. I confess I never read the book concerning his prayer, but I have seen the bumper stickers. I was reading through this little passage the other day, and the recent hoopla about it struck me as just more health-and-wealth gospel, which goes against all the rest of scripture. So I did a little digging. Here's a literal translation of the passage, from Young's Literal Translation of the Bible (third edition 1898):

“And Jabez is honored above his brethren, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I have brought forth with grief.’ And Jabez calleth to the God of Israel, saying, ‘If blessing Thou dost bless me, then Thou hast made great my border, and Thy hand hath been with me, and Thou hast kept me from evil—not to grieve me;’ and God bringeth in that which he asked.”

So the structure of this prayer indicates that it's not a petition at all, but an acknowledgment of God’s blessing already applied to Jabez; God then continues to bless. The blessing would be an indication of the honor God held Jabez in, rather than a reward for whatever honor Jabez had earned. God blesses those whom He will bless and curses those whom He will curse, more in line with their belief than their behavior (Ex. 33:19, Rom. 9:13), but regardless by His sovereignty. This reading of the prayer is much more in line with the testimony of the gospel, and of scripture as a whole.