Add parallel Print Page Options

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)
12 And now,[c] my face is toward you,
    and I have raised my eyes.(C)
13 Command that I be released from the earth
    and not listen to such reproaches any more.
14 You know, O Master, that I am innocent[d]
    of any defilement with a man
15 and that I have not disgraced my name
    or the name of my father in the land of my exile.
I am my father’s only child;
    he has no other child to be his heir,
and he has no close relative or other kindred
    for whom I should keep myself as wife.
Already seven husbands of mine have died.
    Why should I still live?
But if it is not pleasing to you, O Lord, to take my life,
    hear me in my disgrace.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 3.10 Other ancient authorities lack out of distress
  2. 3.11 Other ancient authorities add holy and honorable
  3. 3.12 Other ancient authorities add Lord
  4. 3.14 Q ms adds in my bones