Tobit 3

CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Then Tobit sighed, and he began to pray with tears,	1 Grief-stricken in spirit, I groaned and wept aloud. Then with sobs I began to pray:
2 saying, “O Lord, you are just and all your judgments are just, and all your ways are mercy, and truth, and judgment.	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.
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 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,
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 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.
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 "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.
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 "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!"
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 so happened that Raguel's daughter Sarah also had to listen to abuse, from one of 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 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.
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? Because your husbands are dead? Then why not join 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 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."
11 But, continuing in prayer with tears, she beseeched God, so that he would liberate her from this reproach.	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.
12 And it happened on the third day, while she was completing her prayer, blessing the Lord,	12 And now, O Lord, to you I turn my face and raise my eyes.
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 Bid me to depart from the earth, never again to hear such insults.
14 To you, O Lord, I turn my face; to you, I direct my eyes.	14 "You know, O Master, that I am innocent of any impure act with a 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 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!"
16 You know, O Lord, that I have never coveted a husband, and I have preserved my soul clean from all impure desire.	16 At that very time, the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty 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 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.
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.