Then Tobias sighed, and began to pray with tears,2 Saying: Thou art just, O Lord, and all thy judgments are just, and all thy ways mercy, and truth, and judgment:3 And now, O Lord, think of me, and take not revenge of my sins, neither remember my offenses, nor those of my parents.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.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: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.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,8 Because she had been given to seven husbands, and a devil named Asmodeus had killed them, at their first going in unto her.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.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:11 But continuing in prayer with tears besought God, that he would deliver her from this reproach.16 Thou knowest, O Lord, that I never coveted a husband, and have kept my soul clean from all lust.17 Never have I joined myself with them that play: neither have I made myself partaker with them that walk in lightness.
Accept the sacrifice of my confession as the offering of my tongue, which you have formed and stimulated to confess to your name. Heal all my bones and let them say, "Lord, who is like you?" Not that he who confesses to you teaches you anything of what goes on within him, for the heart that is closed does not shut your eye, nor does the hardness of human beings stay your hand. Rather, you soften it, when you desire, either in compassion or in punishment. "There is no one who can hide from your heat." Rather, my soul praises you, so that it may love you; let it confess to you your mercies, so that it may praise you. Your whole creation never stops or grows silent in your praises—every spirit praises you through the mouth that is turned to you, and all animals and bodily things through the mouth of those who look on them—so that our soul springs up to you from its weakness, supported by those things that you have made and passing over to you who have made these things so wonderfully. There is refreshment and true strength.
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9
Ps 24:2-3
In thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.3 Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on thee shall be confounded.4 Let all them be confounded that act unjust things without cause. Shew, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths.5 Direct me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art God my Saviour; and on thee have I waited all the day long.6 Remember, O Lord, thy bowels of compassion; and thy mercies that are from the beginning of the world.7 The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember. According to thy mercy remember thou me: for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.8 The Lord is sweet and righteous: therefore he will give a law to sinners in the way.9 He will guide the mild in judgment: he will teach the meek his ways.
Now the ways of the Lord are, we may say, certain courses taken in a good life, guided by Christ, who says, "I am the way, and the truth and the life." The way, then, is the surpassing power of God, for Christ is our way, and a good way, too, is he, a way that has opened the kingdom of heaven to believers. Moreover, the ways of the Lord are straight, as it is written: "Make your ways known to me, O Lord." Chastity is a way, faith is a way, abstinence is a way. There is, indeed, a way of virtue, and there is a way of wickedness; for it is written, "And see if there is any way of wickedness in me."
And there came to him the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying:19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, that if any man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed to his brother.20 Now there were seven brethren; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no issue.21 And the second took her, and died: and neither did he leave any issue. And the third in like manner.22 And the seven all took her in like manner; and did not leave issue. Last of all the woman also died.23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise again, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.24 And Jesus answering, saith to them: Do ye not therefore err, because you know not the scriptures, nor the power of God?25 For when they shall rise again from the dead, they shall neither marry, nor be married, but are as the angels in heaven.26 And as concerning the dead that they rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spoke to him, saying: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You therefore do greatly err.
(ubi sup.) And fitly do they frame such a fable in order to prove the madness of those who assert the resurrection of the body. Such a thing however might really have happened at some time or other among them.
(ubi sup.) We must here consider that the Latin custom does not answer to the Greek idiom. For properly 1different words are used for the marriage of men, and that of women; but here we may simply understand that, marry is meant of men, and given in marriage of women.
(ubi sup.) Or else; because after proving that the soul remained after death, (for God could not be God of those who did not exist at all,) the resurrection of the body also might be inferred as a consequence, since it had done good and evil with the soul.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)