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Tobit 3
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| 3:1 Then Tobias sighed, and began to pray with tears, |
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| 3:2 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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| 3:3 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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| 3:4 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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| 3:5 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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| 3:6 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. |
(3:6) "It is better for me to die, than to live."
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| 3:7 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, |
(3:7-8) "Sara daughter of Raguel ... had been given to seven husbands, and a devil named Asmodeus had killed them,
at their first going in unto her."
A devil named "Asmodeus" killed each of Sarah's seven husbands as soon as they had sex with her.
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| 3:8 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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| 3:9 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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| 3:10 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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| 3:11 But continuing in prayer with tears besought God, that he would deliver her from this reproach.
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| 3:12 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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| 3:13 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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| 3:14 To thee, O Lord, I turn my face, to thee I direct my eyes. |
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| 3:15 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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| 3:16 Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never coveted a husband, and have kept my soul clean from all lust.
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| 3:17 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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| 3:18 But a husband I consented to take, with thy fear, not with my lust. |
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| 3:19 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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| 3:20 For thy counsel is not in man's power. |
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| 3:21 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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| 3:22 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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| 3:23 Be thy name, O God of Israel, blessed for ever. |
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| 3:24 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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| 3:25 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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