31 And I was much grieved in my soul and groaned and wept. 2 And I began to pray with groanings: O Lord, thou art righteous, and all thy works are righteous, and all thy ways are mercy and truth: thou judgest the world. 3 And now, O Lord, remember thou me, and look upon me; and take not vengeance on me for my sins, both for mine ignorances and my fathers’. 4 They sinned against thee and disobeyed thy commandments, and thou gavest us for spoil and captivity, and death, and for a proverb and a by-word and a reproach among all the nations among whom thou didst disperse us. 5 And now thy many judgments are true in exacting from me the penalty of my sins, because we did not keep thy commandments and walked not truly before thee. 6 And now deal with me according to thy pleasure, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be released from off the earth and become earth: for it is more profitable for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and there is much sorrow in me. Lord, command that I be released from this distress, let me go to the everlasting place, and turn not thy face, O Lord, away from me. For it is more profitable for me to die, than to see much distress in my life, and not to hear reproaches.

B. Sarah’s Previous History, vv. 7–15.

7 On this day it happened unto Sarah the daughter of Raguel who was in Ecbatana of Media, that she also heard reproaches by one of her father’s maidservants; 8 because that she had been given to seven husbands, and Asmodaeus the evil demon had slain them, before they had been with her as it is appointed for women. And the maidservant said unto her, It is thou that slayest thy husbands; behold thou hast already been given to seven husbands, and thou hast not been named of one of them. 9 Wherefore dost thou scourge us on account of thy husbands because they have died? Go thy ways with them and let us see neither son nor daughter of thine for ever. 10 In that day she was grieved in her soul and wept; and she went up into her father’s upper room, and desired to hang herself; and again she considered and said, Nay, lest they reproach my father; and shall say unto him, Thou hadst one beloved daughter, and she hath hanged herself because of her calamities! and I shall bring down my father’s old age with sorrow to Hades. It is fitter for me not to hang myself, but to supplicate the Lord that I may die and no longer hear reproaches during my life. 11 At the self-same time she stretched forth her hands towards the window and prayed, and said, Blessed art thou, O merciful God, and blessed is thy name for ever: and let all thy works bless thee for ever. 12 And now unto thee my face and mine eyes I lift up: 13 command that I be released from the earth, and that I no more hear reproaches. 14 Thou knowest, Master, that I am pure from all uncleanness with man, 15 and that I never polluted my name, nor the name of my father either, in the land of my captivity. I am the only daughter of my father, and he hath no other child to be his heir, nor has he kinsman near him, nor has he relation, that I should keep myself for a wife unto him. Seven husbands of mine are dead already; and why should it be mine to live on? And if it pleaseth thee not to slay me—O Lord, now hear my reproach.

C. The Union of Sarah’s and Tobit’s Destinies, vv. 16, 17.

16 At the self-same time the prayer of both was heard before the glory of God. 17 And Raphael was sent to heal them both: in the case of Tobit to remove the white films from his eyes, that he might see the light of God with his eyes; and in the case of Sarah the daughter of Raguel, to give her for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to unbind Asmodaeus the evil demon from her; because it belonged to Tobias that he should inherit her rather than all those which wished to take her. At that time did Tobit return from the courtyard into his house, and Sarah the daughter of Raguel herself also came down from the upper chamber.

The Journey of Tobias, 4–13.

A. Its Cause and The Preparations, 4:1–5. 17a.

1. THE CAUSE, VV. 1, 2.