Tobit 3

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Grief-stricken in spirit, I groaned and wept aloud. Then with sobs I began to pray:	1 Then Tobias sighed, and began to pray with tears,
2 "You are righteous, O Lord, and all your deeds are just; All your ways are mercy and truth; you are the judge of the world.	2 Saying: Thou art just, O Lord, and all thy judgments are just, and all thy ways mercy, and truth, and judgment:
3 And now, O Lord, may you be mindful of me, and look with favor upon me. Punish me not for my sins, nor for my inadvertent offenses, nor for those of my fathers. "They sinned against you,	3 And now, O Lord, think of me, and take not revenge of my sins, neither remember my offenses, nor those of my parents.
4 and disobeyed your commandments. So you handed us over to plundering, exile, and death, till we were an object lesson, a byword, a reproach in all the nations among whom you scattered us.	4 For we have not obeyed thy commandments, therefore are we delivered to spoil and to captivity, and death, and are made a fable, and a reproach to all nations, amongst which thou hast scattered us.
5 "Yes, your judgments are many and true in dealing with me as my sins and those of my fathers deserve. For we have not kept your commandments, nor have we trodden the paths of truth before you.	5 And now, O Lord, great are thy judgments, because we have not done according to thy precepts, and have not walked sincerely before thee:
6 "So now, deal with me as you please, and command my life breath to be taken from me, that I may go from the face of the earth into dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard insulting calumnies, and I am overwhelmed with grief. "Lord, command me to be delivered from such anguish; let me go to the everlasting abode; Lord, refuse me not. For it is better for me to die than to endure so much misery in life, and to hear these insults!"	6 And now, O Lord, do with me according to thy will, and command my spirit to be received in peace: for it is better for me to die, than to live.
7 On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it so happened that Raguel's daughter Sarah also had to listen to abuse, from one of her father's maids.	7 Now it happened on the same day, that Sara daughter of Raguel, in Rages a city of the Medes, received a reproach from one of her father's servant maids,
8 For she had been married to seven husbands, but the wicked demon Asmodeus killed them off before they could have intercourse with her, as it is prescribed for wives. So the maid said to her: "You are the one who strangles your husbands! Look at you! You have already been married seven times, but you have had no joy with any one of your husbands.	8 Because she had been given to seven husbands, and a devil named Asmodeus had killed them, at their first going in unto her.
9 Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Then why not join them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!"	9 So when she reproved the maid for her fault, she answered her, saying: May we never see son, or daughter of thee upon the earth, thou murderer of thy husbands.
10 That day she was deeply grieved in spirit. She went in tears to an upstairs room in her father's house with the intention of hanging herself. But she reconsidered, saying to herself: "No! People would level this insult against my father: 'You had only one beloved daughter, but she hanged herself because of ill fortune!' And thus would I cause my father in his old age to go down to the nether world laden with sorrow. It is far better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to have me die, so that I need no longer live to hear such insults."	10 Wilt thou kill me also, as thou hast already killed seven husbands? At these words she went into an upper chamber of her house: and for three days and three nights did neither eat nor drink:
11 At that time, then, she spread out her hands, and facing the window, poured out this prayer: "Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God! Forever blessed and honored is your holy name; may all your works forever bless you.	11 But continuing in prayer with tears besought God, that he would deliver her from this reproach.
12 And now, O Lord, to you I turn my face and raise my eyes.	12 And it came to pass on the third day, when she was making an end of her prayer, blessing the Lord,
13 Bid me to depart from the earth, never again to hear such insults.	13 She said: Blessed is thy name, O God of our fathers: who when thou hast been angry, wilt shew mercy, and in the time of tribulation forgivest the sins of them that call upon thee.
14 "You know, O Master, that I am innocent of any impure act with a man,	14 To thee, O Lord, I turn my face, to thee I direct my eyes.
15 And that I have never defiled my own name or my father's name in the land of my exile. "I am my father's only daughter, and he has no other child to make his heir, Nor does he have a close kinsman or other relative whom I might bide my time to marry. I have already lost seven husbands; why then should I live any longer? But if it please you, Lord, not to slay me, look favorably upon me and have pity on me; never again let me hear these insults!"	15 I beg, O Lord, that thou loose me from the bond of this reproach, or else take me away from the earth.
16 At that very time, the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God.	16 Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never coveted a husband, and have kept my soul clean from all lust.
17 So Raphael was sent to heal them both: to remove the cataracts from Tobit's eyes, so that he might again see God's sunlight; and to marry Raguel's daughter Sarah to Tobit's son Tobiah, and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her. For Tobiah had the right to claim her before any other who might wish to marry her.In the very moment that Tobit returned from the courtyard to his house, Raguel's daughter Sarah came downstairs from her room.	17 Never have I joined myself with them that play: neither have I made myself partaker with them that walk in lightness.
	18 But a husband I consented to take, with thy fear, not with my lust.
	19 And either I was unworthy of them, or they perhaps were not worthy of me: because perhaps thou hast kept me for another man.
	20 For thy counsel is not in man's power.
	21 But this every one is sure of that worshippeth thee, that his life, if it be under trial, shall be crowned: and if it be under tribulation, it shall be delivered: and if it be under correction, it shall be allowed to come to thy mercy.
	22 For thou art not delighted in our being lost: because after a storm thou makest a calm, and after tears and weeping thou pourest in joyfulness.
	23 Be thy name, O God of Israel, blessed for ever.
	24 At that time the prayers of them both were heard in the sight of the glory of the most high God:
	25 And the holy angel of the Lord, Raphael was sent to heal them both, whose prayers at one time were rehearsed in the sight of the Lord.