1   In deep distress I groaned and wept, and as I groaned I prayed: ‘Thou art just, O Lord, and all thy acts are just; 2   in all thy ways thou art merciful and true; thou art judge of the world. 3   Remember me now, Lord, and look upon me. Do not punish me for the sins and errors which I and my fathers have committed. 4   We have sinned against thee and disobeyed thy commandments, and thou hast given us up to plunder, captivity, and death, until we have become a byword, a proverb, and a taunt to all the nations among whom thou hast scattered us. 5   I acknowledge the justice of thy many judgements, the due penalty for my sins, for we have not obeyed thy commandments and have not lived in loyal obedience before thee. 6   And now deal with me at thy pleasure, and command that my life be taken away, so that I may be removed from the face of the earth and turned to earth. I should be better dead than alive, for I have had to hear undeserved reproaches and am in deep grief. Lord, command that I may be released from this misery; let me go to my long home; do not turn thy face from me, O Lord. It is better for me to die than to live in such misery and to hear such reproaches.’

7   On that same day it happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel who lived at Ecbatana in Media, also had to listen to reproaches from one of her father's maidservants, 8   because she had been given in marriage to seven husbands, and before the marriage could be regularly consummated they had all been killed by the wicked demon Asmodaeus. The maidservant said to her: ‘It is you who kill your husbands! You have already been given in marriage to seven, and you have not borne the name of any one of them. 9   Why punish us because they are dead? Go and join your husbands! I hope we never see son or daughter of yours!’

10   She was sad at heart that day, and went in tears up to the attic in her father's house meaning to hang herself. But she had second thoughts and said to herself: ‘Perhaps they will reproach my father and say to him, “You had one dear daughter and she hanged herself because of her troubles”, and so I shall bring my aged father in sorrow to the grave. No, I will not hang myself; it would be better to beg the Lord to let me die and not live on to hear such reproaches.’ 11   Then

The troubles of Tobit at once she spread out her hands towards the window in prayer and said: ‘Praise to thee, merciful God, praise to thy name for ever; let all thy works praise thee for evermore. 12   Now I lift up my eyes and look to thee. 13   Command me to be removed from this earth so that I may no longer hear such reproaches. 14   Thou knowest, Lord, that I am a virgin, guiltless of intercourse with any man; 15   I have not disgraced my name nor my father's name in the land of my exile. I am my father's only child; he has no other to be his heir, nor has he any near kinsman or relative who might marry me, and for whom I should stay alive. Already seven husbands of mine have died. What have I to live for any longer? If it is not thy will, O Lord, to let me die, listen now to my complaint.’

16   At that very time the prayers of both of them were heard in the glorious presence of God. 17   His angel Raphael was sent to cure them both of their troubles: Tobit, by removing the white patches from his eyes so that he might see God's light again, and Sarah daughter of Raguel by giving her in marriage to Tobias son of Tobit and by setting her free from the wicked demon Asmodaeus; for it was the destiny of Tobias and not of any other suitor to possess her. At the moment when Tobit went back from the courtyard into his house, Sarah daughter of Raguel came down from the attic.

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