and rendering thankings to
God all the days of his life. For like as Job was assailed so was Tobit
assailed of his kinsmen, scorning him and saying to him: Where is now
thy hope and reward for which thou gavest thy alms and madest
sepulchres? Tobit blamed them for such words, saying to them: In no wise
say ye not so, for we be the sons of holy men, and we abide that life
that God shall give to them that never shall change their faith from
him. Anna his wife went daily to the work of weaving, and got by the
labor of her hands their livelihood as much as she might. Whereof on a
day she gat a kid and brought it home. When Tobit heard the voice of the
kid bleating, he said: See that it be not stolen, yield it again to the
owner, for it is not lawful for us to eat ne touch anything that is
stolen. To that his wife all angry answered: Now manifestly and openly
is thine hope made vain, and thy alms lost. And thus with such and like
words she chid him. Then Tobit began to sigh and began to pray our Lord
with tears saying: O Lord, thou art rightful, and all thy dooms be true,
and all thy ways be mercy, truth, and righteousness. And now, Lord,
remember me, and take now no vengeance of my sins, ne remember not my
trespasses, ne the sins of my fathers. For'we have not obeyed thy
commandments, therefore we be betaken in to direption, captivity, death,
fables, and into reproof and shame to all nations in which thou hast
dispersed us. And now, Lord, great be thy judgments, for we have not
done according to thy precepts, ne have not walked well tofore thee. And
now, Lord, do to me after thy will, and command my spirit to be received
in peace, it is more expedient to me to die than to live.

The same day it happed that Sara, daughter of Raguel in the city of
Medes, that she was rebuked and heard reproof of one of the handmaidens
of her father. For she had been given to seven men, and a devil named
Asmodeus slew them as soon as they would have gone to her; therefore the
maid reproved her saying: We shall never see son ne daughter of thee on
the earth, thou slayer of thy husbands. Wilt thou slay me as thou hast
slain seven men? With this voice and rebuke she went up in the upperest
cubicle of the house. And three days and three nights she ate not, ne
drank not, but was continually in prayers beseeching God for to deliver
her from this reproof and shame. And on the third day, when she had
accomplished her prayer, blessing our Lord she said: