Tobit 3

CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN	Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
1 Then Tobit sighed, and he began to pray with tears,	1 Then in my grief I wept, and I prayed in anguish, saying,
2 saying, “O Lord, you are just and all your judgments are just, and all your ways are mercy, and truth, and judgment.	2 "Righteous art thou, O Lord; all thy deeds and all they ways are mercy and truth, and thou dost render true and righteous judgment for ever.
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.	3 Remember me and look favorably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offences and those which my fathers committed before thee.
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.	4 For they disobeyed thy commandments, and thou gavest us over to plunder, captivity, and death; thou madest us a byword of reproach in all the nations among which we have been dispersed.
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.	5 And now thy many judgments are true in exacting penalty from me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we did not keep thy commandments. For we did not walk in truth before thee.
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.”	6 And now deal with me according to thy pleasure; command my spirit to be taken up, that I may depart and become dust. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and great is the sorrow within me. Command that I now be released from my distress to go to the eternal abode; do not turn thy face away from me."
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.	7 On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by her father's maids,
8 For she had been given to seven husbands, and a demon named Asmodeus had killed them, as soon as they had approached her.	8 because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon Asmodeus had slain each of them before he had been with her as his wife. So the maids said to her, "Do you not know that you strangle your husbands? You already have had seven and have had no benefit from any of them.
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.	9 Why do you beat us? If they are dead, go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!"
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.	10 When she heard these things she was deeply grieved, even to the thought of hanging herself. But she said, "I am the only child of my father; if I do this, it will be a disgrace to him, and I shall bring his old age down in sorrow to the grave."
11 But, continuing in prayer with tears, she beseeched God, so that he would liberate her from this reproach.	11 So she prayed by her window and said, "Blessed art thou, O Lord my God, and blessed is thy holy and honored name for ever. May all thy works praise thee for ever.
12 And it happened on the third day, while she was completing her prayer, blessing the Lord,	12 And now, O Lord, I have turned my eyes and my face toward thee.
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.	13 Command that I be released from the earth and that I hear reproach no more.
14 To you, O Lord, I turn my face; to you, I direct my eyes.	14 Thou knowest, O Lord, that I am innocent of any sin with man,
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.	15 and that I did not stain my name or the name of my father in the land of my captivity. I am my father's only child, and he has no child to be his heir, no near kinsman or kinsman's son for whom I should keep myself as wife. Already seven husbands of mine are dead. Why should I live? But if it be not pleasing to thee to take my life, command that respect be shown to me and pity be taken upon me, and that I hear reproach no more."
16 You know, O Lord, that I have never coveted a husband, and I have preserved my soul clean from all impure desire.	16 The prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the great God.
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.	17 And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: to scale away the white films of Tobit's eyes; to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel in marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because Tobias was entitled to possess her. At that very moment Tobit returned and entered his house and Sarah the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper room.
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.