Tobit 3
3
Tobit’s prayer to die
1Deeply upset in my heart, I sighed and wept and began to pray with sighs:
2“You are just, Lord, and all your deeds are just; mercy and truth mark all your ways. You judge the world.
3“Now, Lord, remember me and look upon me. Don’t punish me for my sins and the mistakes I made in ignorance, nor for those of my ancestors. They sinned against you, 4and I disregarded your commandments. So you have handed us over to plunder, captivity, and death. We have become a parable and the object of chatter and scorn among all the nations to which you have scattered us. 5You are right in your many judgments, holding me responsible for my sins; for we didn’t observe your commandments, and we haven’t behaved faithfully toward you.
6“And now, deal with me as you wish. Command that my spirit be taken from me so that I might be set free from the earth#3.6 DSS Heb; LXX1,2 land and become dust. It is better for me to die than to live, for I have heard false insults, and I’m full of grief. Lord, command that I might be set free from this distress. Set me free to go to the eternal place. Don’t turn your face from me, Lord, for it is better for me to die than to experience this distress in my life and to endure insults.”
Sarah’s plight and her prayer to die
7On the same day in Ecbatana of Media, Sarah, Raguel’s daughter, also heard insults from one of her father’s female servants.
8Sarah had been given in marriage to seven husbands; and Asmodeus, an evil demon, killed them before they could lie with her as newlyweds do.#3.8 Gk according to what is prescribed for wives And so the female servant said to her, “You are the one who keeps killing your husbands! See, you have already been given to seven husbands, and you haven’t carried the name of any of them. 9Are you beating us because they have all died? Go with them, and may we never see a son or daughter of yours!”
10On that day Sarah was deeply upset in her heart and wept. She went upstairs to a room in her father’s house, and planned to hang herself. But she had second thoughts and said, “They will never insult my father by saying to him, ‘You had but one dearly loved daughter, and she hanged herself because of her troubles.’ If I did this, I would bring my old father down to the grave in sorrow. It is better for me not to hang myself, but to beg of the Lord to let me die so that I no longer hear insults during my lifetime.”
11At that moment, she stretched her hands out toward the window and prayed:
“You are blessed, merciful God, and your name is blessed forever! May all your works forever praise you! 12And now, Lord, I lift my face and my eyes toward you. 13Speak the word, and set me free from the earth so that I don’t have to hear insults anymore. 14You know, Master, that I’m pure from any uncleanness from relations with a man. 15You know that I haven’t tarnished my name or my father’s name in this country where we are captives. I’m my father’s only child. He has no other child to be his heir, nor does he have a brother or near relative for whom I can keep myself as a wife. Seven have died on me already, so why should I go on living? And if you don’t like the idea of killing me, take notice, at least, of how they insult me.”
Raphael helps Tobit and Sarah
16At that very moment, the prayers of both Sarah and Tobit were heard in God’s glorious presence. 17Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: Tobit, by removing the white spots from his eyes to see God’s light with his eyes again, and Sarah, Raguel’s daughter, by giving her as a wife to Tobias, Tobit’s son, and by ridding her of the evil demon. It was Tobias’ right to inherit her before all the others who wished to take her. At that very moment Tobit returned from the courtyard back into his house, and Sarah, Raguel’s daughter, also came down from the upstairs room.
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Tobit 3: CEB
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