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Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”

Sarah’s Prayer for Death

10 Overcome with emotion at that time, she wept and went up to her father’s upper room, intending to hang herself. But she thought it over and said, “Let no one ever reproach my father, saying to him, ‘You had only one beloved daughter, and she hanged herself out of distress!’[a] I would bring my father in his old age down in sorrow to Hades. It is better for me not to hang myself but to beg the Lord that I may die, so that I will not have to listen to these reproaches for the rest of my life.”(A) 11 At that same time, with hands outstretched toward the window, she prayed and said,

“Blessed are you, merciful God!
    Blessed is your name[b] forever;
    let all your works bless you forever.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.10 Other ancient authorities lack out of distress
  2. 3.11 Other ancient authorities add holy and honorable