Chapter 3

  Then Tobias sighed, and began to pray with tears,  

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  Saying: Thou art just, O Lord, and all thy judgments are just, and all thy ways mercy, and truth, and judgment:  

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  And now, O Lord, think of me, and take not revenge of my sins, neither remember my offenses, nor those of my parents.  

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  For we have not obeyed thy commandments, therefore are we delivered to spoil and to captivity, and death, and are made a fable, and a reproach to all nations, amongst which thou hast scattered us.  

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  And now, O Lord, great are thy judgments, because we have not done according to thy precepts, and have not walked sincerely before thee:  

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  And now, O Lord, do with me according to thy will, and command my spirit to be received in peace: for it is better for me to die, than to live.  

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  Now it happened on the same day, that Sara daughter of Raguel, in Rages a city of the Medes, received a reproach from one of her father's servant maids,  

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  Because she had been given to seven husbands, and a devil named Asmodeus had killed them, at their first going in unto her.  

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  So when she reproved the maid for her fault, she answered her, saying: May we never see son, or daughter of thee upon the earth, thou murderer of thy husbands.  

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  Wilt thou kill me also, as thou hast already killed seven husbands? At these words she went into an upper chamber of her house: and for three days and three nights did neither eat nor drink:  

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  But continuing in prayer with tears besought God, that he would deliver her from this reproach.  

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  And it came to pass on the third day, when she was making an end of her prayer, blessing the Lord,  

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  She said: Blessed is thy name, O God of our fathers: who when thou hast been angry, wilt shew mercy, and in the time of tribulation forgivest the sins of them that call upon thee.  

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  To thee, O Lord, I turn my face, to thee I direct my eyes.  

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  I beg, O Lord, that thou loose me from the bond of this reproach, or else take me away from the earth.  

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  Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never coveted a husband, and have kept my soul clean from all lust.  

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  Never have I joined myself with them that play: neither have I made myself partaker with them that walk in lightness.  

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  But a husband I consented to take, with thy fear, not with my lust.  

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  And either I was unworthy of them, or they perhaps were not worthy of me: because perhaps thou hast kept me for another man.  

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  For thy counsel is not in man's power.  

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  But this every one is sure of that worshippeth thee, that his life, if it be under trial, shall be crowned: and if it be under tribulation, it shall be delivered: and if it be under correction, it shall be allowed to come to thy mercy.  

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  For thou art not delighted in our being lost: because after a storm thou makest a calm, and after tears and weeping thou pourest in joyfulness.  

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  Be thy name, O God of Israel, blessed for ever.  

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  At that time the prayers of them both were heard in the sight of the glory of the most high God:  

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  And the holy angel of the Lord, Raphael was sent to heal them both, whose prayers at one time were rehearsed in the sight of the Lord.  

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