Tobit 3

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

King James Version

1Then I being grieved did weep, and in my sorrow prayed, saying,

Then I, being grieved, did weep, and in my sorrow prayed, saying — the blinded state turning its grief into prayer.

2O Lord, thou art just, and all thy works and all thy ways are mercy and truth, and thou judgest truly and justly for ever.

The indwelling LORD, You are just, and all Your works and all Your ways are mercy and truth, and You judge truly and justly for ever — prayer beginning in the rightness of the divine order, not in the complaint of the state.

3Remember me, and look on me, punish me not for my sins and ignorances, and the sins of my fathers, who have sinned before thee:

Remember me, and look on me; punish me not for my sins — my errors, my missing of the mark — and ignorances, and the sins of my fathers, who have sinned before You.

4For they obeyed not thy commandments: wherefore thou hast delivered us for a spoil, and unto captivity, and unto death, and for a proverb of reproach to all the nations among whom we are dispersed.

For they obeyed not Your commandments — the specific articulations of the law, the written order of the divine life; wherefore You have delivered us for a spoil, and unto captivity — consciousness carried away into a foreign ruling state — and unto death, and for a proverb of reproach to all the nations among whom we are dispersed: the state given over to the disorder it chose, never evil authored by God.

5And now thy judgments are many and true: deal with me according to my sins and my fathers’: because we have not kept thy commandments, neither have walked in truth before thee.

And now Your judgments are many and true: deal with me according to my sins and my fathers', because we have not kept Your commandments, neither have walked in truth before You — the state owning its error without excuse.

6Now therefore deal with me as seemeth best unto thee, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved, and become earth: for it is profitable for me to die rather than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and have much sorrow: command therefore that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place: turn not thy face away from me.

Now therefore deal with me as seems best unto You, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved, and become earth — the outer realm, the formed world; for it is profitable for me to die rather than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and have much sorrow: command therefore that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place; turn not Your face — Your Presence — away from me.

7It came to pass the same day, that in Ecbatane a city of Media Sara the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by her father’s maids;

It came to pass the same day, that in Ecbatane, a city of Media, Sara the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by her father's maids — a second sorrow, in another chamber of the same consciousness, answering the first.

8Because that she had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmodeus the evil spirit had killed, before they had lain with her. Dost thou not know, said they, that thou hast strangled thine husbands? thou hast had already seven husbands, neither wast thou named after any of them.

Because she had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmodeus the evil spirit had killed, before they had lain with her. Do you not know, said they, that you have strangled your husbands? You have had already seven husbands, neither were you named after any of them — Asmodeus: the adversarial sense-state, the accuser-voice within consciousness that slays every union before it can be joined; the maids' reproach repeating the adversary's own lie.

9Wherefore dost thou beat us for them? if they be dead, go thy ways after them, let us never see of thee either son or daughter.

Wherefore do you beat us for them? If they be dead, go your ways after them; let us never see of you either son or daughter — the reproach sharpening into a curse upon the future.

10Whe she heard these things, she was very sorrowful, so that she thought to have strangled herself; and she said, I am the only daughter of my father, and if I do this, it shall be a reproach unto him, and I shall bring his old age with sorrow unto the grave.

When she heard these things, she was very sorrowful, so that she thought to have strangled herself; and she said: I am the only daughter of my father, and if I do this, it shall be a reproach unto him, and I shall bring his old age with sorrow unto the grave — sorrow restrained by love: the state refusing to answer reproach with self-destruction.

11Then she prayed toward the window, and said, Blessed art thou, O Lord my God, and thine holy and glorious name is blessed and honourable for ever: let all thy works praise thee for ever.

Then she prayed toward the window, and said: Blessed are You, O Lord my God, and Your holy and glorious name is blessed and honourable for ever: let all Your works praise You for ever — prayer turning toward the opening of light, blessing spoken from within the sorrow.

12And now, O Lord, I set I mine eyes and my face toward thee,

And now, O Lord, I set my eyes and my face toward You — the surface of awareness lifted wholly Godward.

13And say, Take me out of the earth, that I may hear no more the reproach.

And say: Take me out of the earth — the outer life — that I may hear no more the reproach.

14Thou knowest, Lord, that I am pure from all sin with man,

You know, Lord, that I am pure from all sin with man — the state bearing witness to its own integrity before the One who knows it.

15And that I never polluted my name, nor the name of my father, in the land of my captivity: I am the only daughter of my father, neither hath he any child to be his heir, neither any near kinsman, nor any son of his alive, to whom I may keep myself for a wife: my seven husbands are already dead; and why should I live? but if it please not thee that I should die, command some regard to be had of me, and pity taken of me, that I hear no more reproach.

And that I never polluted my name, nor the name of my father, in the land of my captivity: I am the only daughter of my father, neither has he any child to be his heir, neither any near kinsman, nor any son of his alive, to whom I may keep myself for a wife: my seven husbands are already dead; and why should I live? But if it please not You that I should die, command some regard to be had of me, and pity taken of me, that I hear no more reproach — the prayer leaving both doors, death or deliverance, in the hand of the Source.

16So the prayers of them both were heard before the majesty of the great God.

So the prayers of them both were heard before the majesty of the great God — two sorrows, in two cities, heard as one prayer before the greatness of the Divine Mind.

17And Raphael was sent to heal them both, that is, to scale away the whiteness of Tobit’s eyes, and to give Sara the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit; and to bind Asmodeus the evil spirit; because she belonged to Tobias by right of inheritance. The selfsame time came Tobit home, and entered into his house, and Sara the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper chamber.

And Raphael was sent to heal them both — Raphael, the angel: a divine idea ministering between the higher and lower consciousness, sent as healing — that is, to scale away the whiteness of Tobit's eyes, and to give Sara the daughter of Raguel as wife to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil spirit, the adversarial sense-state; because she belonged to Tobias by right of inheritance. The same time Tobit came home and entered into his house, and Sara the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper chamber — the answer already moving while the sorrow still stands in the doorway.

Companion volume to The Why Bible — the King James Apocrypha, rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.