Tobit’s Prayer
3 Then with much grief and anguish of heart I wept, and with groaning I began to pray:
2 “You are righteous, O Lord,
and all your deeds are just;
all your ways are mercy and truth;
you judge the world.[a](A)
3 And now, O Lord, may you be mindful of me
and look favorably upon me.
Do not punish me for my sins
or for my unwitting offenses
or for those of my ancestors.
They sinned against you(B)
4 and disobeyed your commandments.
So you gave us over to plunder, exile, and death,
to become the talk, the byword, and an object of reproach
among all the nations among whom you have dispersed us.(C)
5 And now your many judgments are true
in dealing with me according to my sins.
For we have not kept your commandments
and have not walked in accordance with truth before you.
6 So now deal with me as you will;
command my spirit to be taken from me,
so that I may be released from the face of the earth and become dust.
For it is better for me to die than to live,
because I have had to listen to undeserved insults,
and great is the sorrow that attends me.
Command, O Lord, that I be released from this distress;
release me to go to the place of eternity,
and do not, O Lord, turn your face away from me.
For it is better for me to die
than to see so much distress in my life
and better not to listen to insults.”(D)
Sarah Falsely Accused
7 On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by one of her father’s female slaves.(E)8 For she had been married to seven husbands, and the wicked demon Asmodeus had killed each of them before they had been with her as is customary for wives. So the female slave said to her, “You are the one who kills[b] your husbands! See, you have already been married to seven husbands and have not borne the name of[c] a single one of them.(F)9 Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”
Sarah’s Prayer for Death
10 Overcome with emotion at that time, she wept and went up to her father’s upper room, intending to hang herself. But she thought it over and said, “Let no one ever reproach my father, saying to him, ‘You had only one beloved daughter, and she hanged herself out of distress!’[d] I would bring my father in his old age down in sorrow to Hades. It is better for me not to hang myself but to beg the Lord that I may die, so that I will not have to listen to these reproaches for the rest of my life.”(G)11 At that same time, with hands outstretched toward the window, she prayed and said,
“Blessed are you, merciful God!
Blessed is your name[e] forever;
let all your works bless you forever.(H)
12 And now,[f] my face is toward you,
and I have raised my eyes.(I)
13 Command that I be released from the earth
and not listen to such reproaches any more.
14 You know, O Master, that I am innocent[g]
of any defilement with a man
15 and that I have not disgraced my name
or the name of my father in the land of my exile.
I am my father’s only child;
he has no other child to be his heir,
and he has no close relative or other kindred
for whom I should keep myself as wife.
Already seven husbands of mine have died.
Why should I still live?
But if it is not pleasing to you, O Lord, to take my life,
hear me in my disgrace.”
An Answer to Prayer
16 At that very moment, the prayers of both of them were heard in the glorious presence of God. 17 So Raphael was sent to heal both of them: Tobit by removing the white films from his eyes, so that he might see God’s light with his eyes,[h] and Sarah, daughter of Raguel, by giving her in marriage to Tobias son of Tobit, and by setting her free from the wicked demon Asmodeus. For Tobias was entitled to have her before all others who had desired to marry her. At the same time that Tobit returned from the courtyard into his house, Sarah daughter of Raguel came down from her upper room.(J)
Footnotes
- 3.2Other ancient authorities read you render true and righteous judgment forever
- 3.8Other ancient authorities read strangles
- 3.8Other ancient authorities read have had no benefit from
- 3.10Other ancient authorities lack out of distress
- 3.11Other ancient authorities add holy and honorable
- 3.12Other ancient authorities add Lord
- 3.14Q ms adds in my bones
- 3.17Other ancient authorities lack with his eyes
Cross references
- 3.2 : Ezra 9.15; Ps 119.137
- 3.3 : Sir 23.2; 1 Esd 8.72
- 3.4 : Deut 28.15, 37; Ps 44.14; Jer 24.9; 2 Esd 4.23
- 3.6 : Num 11.15; 1 Kings 19.4; 2 Chr 30.9; Jon 4.3; Tob 4.7
- 3.7 : Ezra 6.2; Tob 5.6; 7.1; 14.12; Jdt 1.1, 2; 2 Macc 9.3
- 3.8 : v 17; Tob 6.14, 15, 18; 8.3
- 3.10 : Gen 42.38; 44.31; Tob 6.14
- 3.11 : Ps 145.10; Dan 6.10; Tob 8.5; 11.14
- 3.12 : Ps 123.1; 141.8
- 3.17 : v 8; Tob 6.12; 8.2; 11.13; Acts 9.18