7 On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by one of her father's maids. 8 For she had been married to seven husbands, and the wicked demon Asmodeus had killed each of them before they had been with her as is customary for wives. So the maid said to her, "You are the one who kills your husbands! See, you have already been married to seven husbands and have not borne the name of a single one of them. 9 Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!"

2 And his wife, Anna, mourned with two kinds of grief and lamented with two types of sorrow, saying: “I will weep for my widowhood; I will weep for my childlessness.” The great day of the Lord was approaching, and Judith, her maidservant, said: “How long will you torment yourself? Look, the great day of the Lord is near, and it is unlawful for you to mourn. Take this headband, which was given to me by the woman who made it. It is not fitting for me to wear because I am a maidservant, and it has a royal look to it.” But Anna replied: “Leave me alone; I have not done such things, and the Lord has humbled me greatly. I fear that some wicked person has given it to you, and now you’ve come to make me share in your sin.” Judith answered: “Why should I curse you when the Lord has closed your womb, preventing you from bearing fruit in Israel?” Anna, deeply grieved, took off her mourning clothes, cleaned her head, and put on her wedding garments. Around the ninth hour, she went down to the garden to take a walk. She saw a laurel tree, sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: “O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, just as You blessed the womb of Sarah and gave her a son, Isaac.”