The Book of Tobit, Chapter 3ΤΩΒΙΤ Γ′

καὶ λυπηθεὶς ἔκλαυσα καὶ προσευξάμην μετ' ὀδύνης λέγων

And being grieved, I wept and prayed in pain, saying,

δίκαιος εἶ κύριε καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ πᾶσαι αἱ ὁδοί σου ἐλεημοσύναι καὶ ἀλήθεια καὶ κρίσιν ἀληθινὴν καὶ δικαίαν σὺ κρίνεις εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα

'You are righteous, O Lord, and all your works and all your ways are acts of mercy and truth, and you judge true and righteous judgment forever.'

μνήσθητί μου καὶ ἐπίβλεψον ἐπ' ἐμέ μή με ἐκδικήσῃς ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις μου καὶ τοῖς ἀγνοήμασίν μου καὶ τῶν πατέρων μου ἃ ἥμαρτον ἐνώπιόν σου

Remember me and look upon me; do not punish me for my sins and my ignorant errors and those of my fathers, which they sinned before you.

παρήκουσαν γὰρ τῶν ἐντολῶν σου ἔδωκας ἡμᾶς εἰς διαρπαγὴν καὶ αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ θάνατον καὶ παραβολὴν ὀνειδισμοῦ πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐν οἷς ἐσκορπίσμεθα

For they disobeyed your commandments, and you gave us over to plundering and captivity and death and to be a proverb of reproach among all the nations among which we were scattered.

καὶ νῦν πολλαὶ αἱ κρίσεις σού εἰσιν ἀληθιναὶ ἐξ ἐμοῦ ποιῆσαι περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν μου καὶ τῶν πατέρων μου ὅτι οὐκ ἐποιήσαμεν τὰς ἐντολάς σου οὐ γὰρ ἐπορεύθημεν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ ἐνώπιόν σου

And now many of your judgments are true in dealing with me concerning my sins and those of my fathers, because we did not keep your commandments, for we did not walk in truth before you.

καὶ νῦν κατὰ τὸ ἀρεστὸν ἐνώπιόν σου ποίησον μετ' ἐμοῦ ἐπίταξον ἀναλαβεῖν τὸ πνεῦμά μου ὅπως ἀπολυθῶ καὶ γένωμαι γῆ διότι λυσιτελεῖ μοι ἀποθανεῖν ἢ ζῆν ὅτι ὀνειδισμοὺς ψευδεῖς ἤκουσα καὶ λύπη ἐστὶν πολλὴ ἐν ἐμοί ἐπίταξον ἀπολυθῆναί με τῆς ἀνάγκης ἤδη εἰς τὸν αἰώνιον τόπον μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἀπ' ἐμοῦ

And now deal with me according to what is pleasing before you; command my spirit to be taken up, so that I may be released and become earth. For it profits me to die rather than to live, because I have heard false reproaches and there is much grief within me. Command that I now be released from distress into the eternal place, and do not turn your face away from me.'

ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ συνέβη τῇ θυγατρὶ Ραγουηλ Σαρρα ἐν Ἐκβατάνοις τῆς Μηδίας καὶ ταύτην ὀνειδισθῆναι ὑπὸ παιδισκῶν πατρὸς αὐτῆς

On that same day it happened to the daughter of Raguel, Sarah, in Ecbatana of Media, that she also was reproached by her father's maidservants,

ὅτι ἦν δεδομένη ἀνδράσιν ἑπτά καὶ Ασμοδαυς τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτοὺς πρὶν ἢ γενέσθαι αὐτοὺς μετ' αὐτῆς ὡς ἐν γυναιξίν καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῇ οὐ συνίεις ἀποπνίγουσά σου τοὺς ἄνδρας ἤδη ἑπτὰ ἔσχες καὶ ἑνὸς αὐτῶν οὐκ ὠνάσθης

because she had been given to seven men, and Asmodeus the evil demon had killed them before they had been with her as with wives. And they said to her, 'Do you not understand? You are strangling your husbands. Already you have had seven, and you have not benefited from one of them.'

τί ἡμᾶς μαστιγοῖς εἰ ἀπέθαναν βάδιζε μετ' αὐτῶν μὴ ἴδοιμέν σου υἱὸν ἢ θυγατέρα εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα

Why do you scourge us, if they died? Go with them, and may we never see son or daughter from you forever.'

ταῦτα ἀκούσασα ἐλυπήθη σφόδρα ὥστε ἀπάγξασθαι καὶ εἶπεν μία μέν εἰμι τῷ πατρί μου ἐὰν ποιήσω τοῦτο ὄνειδος αὐτῷ ἐστιν καὶ τὸ γῆρας αὐτοῦ κατάξω μετ' ὀδύνης εἰς ᾅδου

When she heard these things, she was greatly grieved so as to hang herself, and she said, 'I am my father's only child; if I do this, it will be a reproach to him, and I will bring down his old age with grief to Hades.'

καὶ ἐδεήθη πρὸς τῇ θυρίδι καὶ εἶπεν εὐλογητὸς εἶ κύριε ὁ θεός μου καὶ εὐλογητὸν τὸ ὄνομά σου τὸ ἅγιον καὶ ἔντιμον εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας εὐλογήσαισάν σε πάντα τὰ ἔργα σου εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα

And she prayed by the window and said, 'Blessed are you, Lord my God, and blessed is your holy and honored name forever; let all your works bless you forever.'

καὶ νῦν κύριε τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου καὶ τὸ πρόσωπόν μου εἰς σὲ δέδωκα

And now, Lord, I have turned my eyes and my face toward you;

εἰπὸν ἀπολῦσαί με ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς καὶ μὴ ἀκοῦσαί με μηκέτι ὀνειδισμόν

say that I be released from the earth and that I hear reproach no longer.

σὺ γινώσκεις κύριε ὅτι καθαρά εἰμι ἀπὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας ἀνδρὸς

You know, Lord, that I am pure from every sin with a man,

καὶ οὐκ ἐμόλυνα τὸ ὄνομά μου οὐδὲ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρός μου ἐν τῇ γῇ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας μου μονογενής εἰμι τῷ πατρί μου καὶ οὐχ ὑπάρχει αὐτῷ παιδίον ὃ κληρονομήσει αὐτόν οὐδὲ ἀδελφὸς ἐγγὺς οὐδὲ ὑπάρχων αὐτῷ υἱός ἵνα συντηρήσω ἐμαυτὴν αὐτῷ γυναῖκα ἤδη ἀπώλοντό μοι ἑπτά ἵνα τί μοι ζῆν καὶ εἰ μὴ δοκεῖ σοι ἀποκτεῖναί με ἐπίταξον ἐπιβλέψαι ἐπ' ἐμὲ καὶ ἐλεῆσαί με καὶ μηκέτι ἀκοῦσαί με ὀνειδισμόν

and I have not defiled my name nor the name of my father in the land of my captivity. I am my father's only child, and he has no child who will inherit him, nor a near brother, nor an existing son for him, that I should keep myself for him as wife. Already seven have perished to me; why should I live? And if it does not seem good to you to kill me, command that you look upon me and have mercy on me, and let me hear reproach no longer.'

καὶ εἰσηκούσθη ἡ προσευχὴ ἀμφοτέρων ἐνώπιον τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου Ραφαηλ

And the prayer of both was heard before the glory of the great Raphael,

καὶ ἀπεστάλη ἰάσασθαι τοὺς δύο τοῦ Τωβιτ λεπίσαι τὰ λευκώματα καὶ Σαρραν τὴν τοῦ Ραγουηλ δοῦναι Τωβια τῷ υἱῷ Τωβιτ γυναῖκα καὶ δῆσαι Ασμοδαυν τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον διότι Τωβια ἐπιβάλλει κληρονομῆσαι αὐτήν ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ καιρῷ ἐπιστρέψας Τωβιτ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ καὶ Σαρρα ἡ τοῦ Ραγουηλ κατέβη ἐκ τοῦ ὑπερῴου αὐτῆς

and he was sent to heal the two: to peel away the white films of Tobit and to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel to Tobias the son of Tobit as wife, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because it belongs to Tobias to inherit her. At that very time Tobit returned and entered his house, and Sarah the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper room.