Tobit 3:13-17
New Catholic Bible
13 Command that I be delivered from the earth,
never again to endure such reproaches.
14 “You know, O Master, that I am innocent
of an act of impurity with any man,
15 and that I have never dishonored my name
or the name of my father in this land of exile.
“I am the only child of my father,
and he has no other child to be his heir.
Neither does he have a close relative or other kindred as a potential bridegroom
for whom I should stay alive.
I have already suffered the loss of seven husbands.
Why then should I want to live any longer?
However, if it is not your will, O Lord, to take my life,
then look on me with pity
and never again permit me to hear these insults.”
16 An Answer to Prayer.[a]At that very moment the prayer of both these petitioners was heard in the glorious presence of God, 17 and Raphael[b] was sent to heal them both. He was to remove the white patches from Tobit’s eyes so that he might once again behold God’s light with his own eyes, and he was to give Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, in marriage to Tobiah, son of Tobit, and then free her from the wicked demon Asmodeus. For Tobiah had the right to claim her in marriage before any other suitor.
At the very moment that Tobit returned from the courtyard to his house, Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, descended from her upper room.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Tobit 3:16 Is the cry of the righteous who are afflicted heard by God? The author lets us in on the secret: God is neither indifferent nor absent; his Providence disposes everything for the good of those who love him. Through the intermediary of an angel, Raphael—that is, “God heals”—his Providence intervenes in favor of his two suffering children.
- Tobit 3:17 Raphael: an angel, whose name means “God heals.”
