Tobit 3

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Then, sad at heart, I sighed and wept, and began this prayer of lamentation:	1 Then Tobit sighed, and he began to pray with tears,
2 You are just, O Lord, and just are all your works. Al your ways are grace and truth, and you are theJudge of the world.	2 saying, “O Lord, you are just and all your judgments are just, and all your ways are mercy, and truth, and judgment.
3 Therefore, Lord, remember me, look on me. Do not punish me for my sins or for my needless faults orthose of my ancestors.	3 And now, O Lord, remember me, and do not take vengeance for my sins, and do not call to mind my offenses, nor those of my parents.
4 For we have sinned against you and broken your commandments; and you have given us over to beplundered, to captivity and death, to be the talk, the laughing-stock and scorn of al the nations among whom youhave dispersed us.	4 For we have not obeyed your precepts, and so we have been handed over to plundering and to captivity, and to death, and to mockery, and as a disgrace before all the nations, among which you have dispersed us.
5 And now al your decrees are true when you deal with me as my faults deserve, and those of myancestors. For we have neither kept your commandments nor walked in truth before you.	5 And now, O Lord, great are your judgments. For we have not acted according to your precepts, and we have not walked sincerely before you.
6 So now, do with me as you wil ; be pleased to take my life from me; so that I may be delivered fromearth and become earth again. Better death than life for me, for I have endured groundless insult and am indeepest sorrow. Lord, be pleased to deliver me from this affliction. Let me go away to my everlasting home; donot turn your face from me, O Lord. Better death for me than life prolonged in the face of unrelenting misery: Ican no longer bear to listen to insults.	6 And now, O Lord, do with me according to your will, and order my spirit to be received in peace. For it is more expedient for me to die, than to live.”
7 It chanced on the same day that Sarah the daughter of Raguel, who lived in Media at Ecbatana, alsoheard insults from one of her father's maids.	7 And so, on the same day, it happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, in Rages, a city of the Medes, also heard a reproach from one of her father’s servant maids.
8 For she had been given in marriage seven times, and Asmodeus, the worst of demons, had kil ed herbridegrooms one after another before ever they had slept with her as man with wife. The servant-girl said, 'Yes,you kill your bridegrooms yourself. That makes seven already to whom you have been given, and you have notonce been in luck yet.	8 For she had been given to seven husbands, and a demon named Asmodeus had killed them, as soon as they had approached her.
9 Just because your bridegrooms have died, that is no reason for punishing us. Go and join them, andmay we be spared the sight of any child of yours!'	9 Therefore, when she corrected the maid for her fault, she answered her, saying, “May we never see son or daughter from you upon the earth, you murderess of your husbands.
10 That day, she grieved, she sobbed, and she went up to her father's room intending to hang herself.But then she thought, 'Suppose they were to blame my father! They would say, "You had an only daughterwhom you loved, and now she has hanged herself for grief." I cannot cause my father a sorrow which wouldbring down his old age to the dwel ing of the dead. I should do better not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord tolet me die and not live to hear any more insults.'	10 Would you also kill me, just as you have already killed seven husbands?” At these words, she proceeded to an upper room of her house. And for three days and three nights, she did not eat or drink.
11 And at this, by the window, with outstretched arms she said this prayer: You are blessed, O God ofmercy! May your name be blessed for ever, and may al things you have made bless you everlastingly.	11 But, continuing in prayer with tears, she beseeched God, so that he would liberate her from this reproach.
12 And now I turn my face and I raise my eyes to you.	12 And it happened on the third day, while she was completing her prayer, blessing the Lord,
13 Let your word deliver me from earth; I can hear myself insulted no longer.	13 that she said: “Blessed is your name, O God of our fathers, who, though you had been angry, will show mercy. And in time of tribulation, you dismiss the sins of those who call upon you.
14 O Lord, you know that I have remained pure; no man has touched me;	14 To you, O Lord, I turn my face; to you, I direct my eyes.
15 I have not dishonoured your name or my father's name in this land of exile. I am my father's onlydaughter, he has no other child as heir; he has no brother at his side, nor has he any kinsman left for whom Iought to keep myself. I have lost seven husbands already; why should I live any longer? If it does not please youto take my life, then look on me with pity; I can no longer bear to hear myself defamed.	15 I beg you, O Lord, that you may absolve me from the chains of this reproach, or at least take me away from the earth.
16 This time the prayer of each of them found favour before the glory of God,	16 You know, O Lord, that I have never coveted a husband, and I have preserved my soul clean from all impure desire.
17 and Raphael was sent to bring remedy to them both. He was to take the white spots from the eyes ofTobit, so that he might see God's light with his own eyes; and he was to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel asbride to Tobias son of Tobit, and to rid her of Asmodeus, that worst of demons. For it was to Tobias before alother suitors that she belonged by right. Tobit was coming back from the courtyard into the house at the samemoment as Sarah the daughter of Raguel was coming down from the upper room.	17 I have never mingled myself with those who play. And I have not presented myself as a participant with those who walk with levity.
	18 But I consented to accept a husband, in your fear, not in my lust.
	19 And, either I was unworthy of them, or they perhaps were not worthy of me. For perhaps you have preserved me for another husband.
	20 For your counsel is not within the ability of man.
	21 But all who worship you are certain of this: that one’s life, if it should be tested, shall be crowned, and if it should be in tribulation, shall be delivered, and if it should be corrected, shall be permitted to approach your mercy.
	22 For you are not delighted with our perdition. For, after a storm, you create tranquility, and after tears and weeping, you pour out exultation.
	23 May your name, O God of Israel, be blessed forever.”
	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 care for both of them, whose prayers were recited at the same time in the sight of the Lord.