Chapter 3
Tobit’s Prayer. 1 With deep distress I groaned and wept aloud. Then, sobbing, I began to pray:
2 “You are just, O Lord,
and all your deeds are just.
All your ways are merciful and true;
you are the judge of the world.
3 And now, O Lord, be mindful of me
and look upon me with favor.
Do not punish me for my sins
or for my unthinking offenses
or those of my ancestors.
“They sinned against you
4 and did not obey your commandments.
Therefore, you have subjected us to pillage, captivity, and death,
to become the talk, the laughingstock, and the object of scorn,
of all the nations among which you have dispersed us.
5 “And your many judgments are true
when you deal with me as my sins deserve
and those of my ancestors.
For we have not kept your commandments,
nor have we walked in truth in your sight.
6 “So now, deal with me as you wish;
command that my life be taken away from me
so that I may be removed from the face of the earth and once again become dust.
For it is better for me to die than to live,
because I have endured undeserved insults,
and I am engulfed in the deepest grief.
“Command, O Lord, that I be delivered from this affliction;
receive me into the eternal abode,
and do not, O Lord, turn your face from me.
For it is better for me to die
than to endure a life of such unrelieved misery
and to be subjected to these insults.”
Sarah: Innocence Diabolically Offended
Sarah’s Misfortune. 7 On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, had to endure the insults of one of her father’s maids. 8 For she had been married to seven husbands, but the wicked demon Asmodeus had slain each of them before the marriage had been consummated as is customary. The servant girl said to her, “You are the one who has slain your husbands! Behold, you have already been given in marriage seven times, but you have experienced no joy with any of your husbands. 9 Just because your husbands are dead is no reason to abuse us. Join them, and may we never live to see any son or daughter of yours!”
10 On that day, deeply distressed, she went in tears to an upper room in her father’s house, intending to hang herself. But then she considered further, thinking: “Perhaps they will reproach my father, saying to him, ‘You had only one beloved daughter, but because of her misfortune she hanged herself.’ Thus I would cause my father in his old age to descend to Hades, overcome with sorrow. It would be far better for me not to hang myself but to beg the Lord to grant that I die so that I will no longer have to listen to these taunts.”
11 Sarah’s Prayer.Then, with hands outstretched toward the window, she offered this prayer:
“Blessed are you, merciful God!
May your name be blessed forever,
and may all your works forever praise you.
12 “And now, O Lord, I turn my face toward you
and raise my eyes to you.
13 Command that I be delivered from the earth,
never again to endure such reproaches.
14 “You know, O Master, that I am innocent
of an act of impurity with any man,
15 and that I have never dishonored my name
or the name of my father in this land of exile.
“I am the only child of my father,
and he has no other child to be his heir.
Neither does he have a close relative or other kindred as a potential bridegroom
for whom I should stay alive.
I have already suffered the loss of seven husbands.
Why then should I want to live any longer?
However, if it is not your will, O Lord, to take my life,
then look on me with pity
and never again permit me to hear these insults.”
16 An Answer to Prayer.At that very moment the prayer of both these petitioners was heard in the glorious presence of God, 17 and Raphael was sent to heal them both. He was to remove the white patches from Tobit’s eyes so that he might once again behold God’s light with his own eyes, and he was to give Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, in marriage to Tobiah, son of Tobit, and then free her from the wicked demon Asmodeus. For Tobiah had the right to claim her in marriage before any other suitor.
At the very moment that Tobit returned from the courtyard to his house, Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, descended from her upper room.
Footnotes
- Tobit 3:6
- Tobit 3:7
- Tobit 3:7
- Tobit 3:7
- Tobit 3:11
- Tobit 3:16
- Tobit 3:17
