Tobit's Prayer
1 I was so embarrassed and ashamed that I sighed and began to cry. Then, as I choked back my tears, I prayed:
2 “You are righteous, O Lord!
You are merciful in all you do,
faithful in all your ways.
You are the judge of this world.
3-4 I beg you, treat me with kindness.
Do not punish me for my sins,
not even for sins of which I am unaware.
My ancestors rebelled and disobeyed your commands,
but do not punish me for their sins.
You let our people be plundered,
taken captive and killed.
You made an example of our people,
an object of contempt and disgrace
in all the nations where you scattered us.
5 You have often judged my ancestors for their sins
and punished me for mine.
We were disloyal and rejected your commands,
so our punishment has always been just.
6 “Now treat me as you please.
Take my life away and free me from this world;
let my body return to the earth.
I would be better off dead.
I am tormented by insults I don't deserve,
and weighed down with despair.
Lord, give the command—
bring all my troubles to an end,
take me to my eternal rest.
Don't reject my prayer.
I would rather die than live in misery
and face such cruel insults.”
Sarah's Troubles
7 That same day in the city of Ecbatana in Media, it happened that Sarah, the daughter of a man named Raguel, was insulted by one of her father's servant women. 8 Sarah had been married seven times, but the evil demon, Asmodeus, killed each husband before the marriage could be consummated. The servant woman said to Sarah, “You husband killer! Look at you! You've already had seven husbands, but not one of them lived long enough to give you a son. 9 Why should you take it out on us? Why don't you go and join your dead husbands? I hope we never see a child of yours!”
10 Sarah was so depressed that she burst into tears and went upstairs determined to hang herself. But when she thought it over, she said to herself, “No, I won't do it! People would insult my father and say, ‘You had only one child, a daughter whom you loved dearly, but she hanged herself because she felt so miserable.’ Such grief would bring my gray-haired father to his grave, and I would be responsible. I won't kill myself; I'll just beg the Lord to let me die. Then I won't have to listen to those insults any longer!”
Sarah's Prayer
11 Then Sarah stood by the window, raised her arms in prayer, and said,
“God of mercy, worthy of our praise,
may your name always be honored,
may all your creation praise you forever.
12 “Lord, I look to you for help.
13 Speak the word and set me free from this life;
then I will no longer have to hear these insults.
14 You know, O Lord, that I'm still a virgin;
I have never been defiled by a man.
15 Never have I disgraced myself or my father's name,
as long as we have lived in this land of exile.
My father has no other child to be his heir,
and there is no relative whom I can marry.
I have already lost seven husbands,
so why should I live any longer?
But if it is not your will to take my life,
at least show mercy to me.
Don't let me hear those insults again!”
God Hears the Prayers of Tobit and Sarah
16 As Tobit and Sarah were praying, God in heaven heard their prayers 17 and sent his angel Raphael to help them. He was sent to remove the white film from Tobit's eyes, so that he could see again, and to arrange a marriage between Sarah and Tobit's son Tobias, who, as her cousin, had the right to marry her. Raphael was also ordered to expel the demon Asmodeus from Sarah. At the very moment that Tobit went back into his house from the courtyard, Sarah, in her house in Ecbatana, was coming downstairs.
1 Then I being grieved did weep, and in my sorrow prayed, saying,
2 O Lord, thou art just, and all thy works and all thy ways are mercy and truth, and thou judgest truly and justly for ever.
3 Remember me, and look on me, punish me not for my sins and ignorances, and the sins of my fathers, who have sinned before thee:
4 For they obeyed not thy commandments: wherefore thou hast delivered us for a spoil, and unto captivity, and unto death, and for a proverb of reproach to all the nations among whom we are dispersed.
5 And now thy judgments are many and true: deal with me according to my sins and my fathers’: because we have not kept thy commandments, neither have walked in truth before thee.
6 Now therefore deal with me as seemeth best unto thee, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved, and become earth: for it is profitable for me to die rather than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and have much sorrow: command therefore that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place: turn not thy face away from me.
7 It came to pass the same day, that in Ecbatane a city of Media Sara the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by her father’s maids;
8 Because that she had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmodeus the evil spirit had killed, before they had lain with her. Dost thou not know, said they, that thou hast strangled thine husbands? thou hast had already seven husbands, neither wast thou named after any of them.
9 Wherefore dost thou beat us for them? if they be dead, go thy ways after them, let us never see of thee either son or daughter.
10 Whe she heard these things, she was very sorrowful, so that she thought to have strangled herself; and she said, I am the only daughter of my father, and if I do this, it shall be a reproach unto him, and I shall bring his old age with sorrow unto the grave.
11 Then she prayed toward the window, and said, Blessed art thou, O Lord my God, and thine holy and glorious name is blessed and honourable for ever: let all thy works praise thee for ever.
12 And now, O Lord, I set mine eyes and my face toward thee,
13 And say, Take me out of the earth, that I may hear no more the reproach.
14 Thou knowest, Lord, that I am pure from all sin with man,
15 And that I never polluted my name, nor the name of my father, in the land of my captivity: I am the only daughter of my father, neither hath he any child to be his heir, neither any near kinsman, nor any son of his alive, to whom I may keep myself for a wife: my seven husbands are already dead; and why should I live? but if it please not thee that I should die, command some regard to be had of me, and pity taken of me, that I hear no more reproach.
16 So the prayers of them both were heard before the majesty of the great God.
17 And Raphael was sent to heal them both, that is, to scale away the whiteness of Tobit’s eyes, and to give Sara the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit; and to bind Asmodeus the evil spirit; because she belonged to Tobias by right of inheritance. The selfsame time came Tobit home, and entered into his house, and Sara the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper chamber.