Tobit’s Prayer

¹ Then I became greatly depressed in my soul. Groaning out loud, I wept and I began to pray as I groaned:

² “Righteous are you, O Lord; all your deeds are just and all your ways are merciful and true. You judge the world.

³ And now, Lord, remember me and look favourably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offences and those of my fathers. They sinned before you

⁴ and they disobeyed your commandments, and you gave us over to plunder and captivity and death; you made us an example and a byword and a reproach among all the nations among which you scattered us.

⁵ And now your many judgements are true, to deal with me for my sins, because we did not do what you commanded and we did not walk before you with sincerity.

⁶ And now deal with me according to your pleasure; command my spirit to withdraw from me, that I may be set free from the face of the earth and become earth myself. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and great sorrow is upon me. Lord, command that I be set free from this distress. Set me free to go to the eternal place and do not turn your face, Lord, away from me. It is better for me to die and not to hear reproaches than to continue to see so much distress in my life.”

Sarah Falsely Accused

⁷ On that day, it befell Sarah, daughter of Raguel in Ecbatana of Media, that she heard reproaches from one of her father’s maidservants,

⁸ because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon Asmodeus killed them before they had been with her as it is prescribed for wives. So the maidservant said to her, “You are the one who kills your husbands! Behold! You have already been married to seven husbands and have not borne the name of any one of them.

⁹ Why do you beat us over your dead husbands? Go along with them, and may we never see a son or daughter of yours!”

Sarah’s Prayer for Death

¹⁰ On that day she was grieved in her soul and began to weep. Ascending to the upper room in her father’s house, she wanted to hang herself. But she reconsidered and said: “Let it not happen that they reproach my father and say to him, ‘You had one beloved daughter and she hanged herself to escape her troubles.’ I would bring the old age of my father down to Hades in grief. It is better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord that I might die and no longer hear reproaches during my life.”

¹¹ At that very time, spreading out her hands towards the window, she prayed and said: “Blessed are you, merciful God, and blessed is your name for ever. May all your works bless you for ever.

¹² And now, O Lord, my face looks to you and I lift my eyes.

¹³ Speak, that I might be set free from the earth and that I might no longer hear reproaches.

¹⁴ You know, Master, that I am clean from any uncleanness with a man

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 other child to be his heir, no near kinsman or relative for whom I should keep myself to be a wife. Already seven have been lost to me. Why should I yet live? And if it does not seem right to you to kill me, Lord, hear now how I am reproached!”

Answer to Prayer

¹⁶ At that very moment, the prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of God.

¹⁷ And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: with regard to Tobit, to remove the white films from his eyes, in order that he might see the light of God with his eyes; with regard to Sarah, daughter of Raguel, to give her as wife to Tobias son of Tobit and to send Asmodeus the evil demon away from her, because Tobias was entitled to inherit her before all those wishing to have her. At that very moment, Tobit returned from the courtyard into his house and Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, came down from the upper room.