"Distressed, I wept and prayed; and expressing my sorrow, I said, 'YOU are just, O LORD; all YOUR actions and all YOUR ways are merciful and just; YOUR judgments are always true and just. Remember me, LORD, and look on me. Do not punish me for my sins nor for the wrongs I have committed through ignorance. Pardon the sins which my fathers have committed in YOUR sight, for they disobeyed YOUR commandments. YOU have allowed us to suffer pillage, captivity and death. YOU have allowed us to be mocked by all the pagan nations among whom we have been dispersed. Ah well! All YOUR judgments are just when YOU choose to punish me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we have not accomplished YOUR will, nor have we sincerely obeyed YOUR commands. We have not walked before YOU in truth.
Do with me as YOU will. Order my life taken from me, and turn me into dust, because I prefer death to life. In this way free me and let me return to dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because these unjust reproaches have caused me great distress. Command that I be now released from trials, and let me enter my eternal dwelling place. Do not turn YOUR face away from me.'" - Tobit 3:1-6
(In the Scriptures we repeatedly see that GOD tests us before granting us a special favor. We will really understand when we hear what CHRIST says to the disciples of Emmaus: "Did not the Messiah have to suffer all this to enter into HIS glory?" [Luke 24:26].
He is in solidarity with his sinning people and finds it just to be punished, even though he asks to be freed from this punishment.
He feels incapable of fighting alone in life, and asks for death, but leaves everything in GOD's hands.
His prayer is to ask for strength and the ability to fulfill what GOD says and demands and not to present to GOD his own plan and ask HIM to realize it, as we often do when we pray.)
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