2 In the days of[a] Esar-haddon[b] I returned home, and my wife Anna and my son Tobias were restored to me. At our Festival of Pentecost, which is the sacred Festival of Weeks, a good dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat.(A)2 When the table had been set for me and an abundance of food placed before me, I said to my son Tobias, “Go, my son, and bring whatever poor person you may find of our kindred among the exiles in Nineveh who is wholeheartedly mindful of God,[c] and he shall eat together with me. I will wait for you, my son, until you come back.” 3 So Tobias went to look for some poor person of our kindred. When he had returned he said, “Father!” And I replied, “Here I am, my son.” Then he went on to say, “Look, father, one of our own nation has been killed and thrown into the marketplace, and now he lies there strangled.” 4 Then I sprang up, left the dinner before even tasting it, and removed him from the square and laid him in one of the outbuildings at my home until sunset, when I might bury him. 5 When I returned, I washed myself and ate my food in sorrow. 6 Then I remembered the prophecy of Amos, how he said against Bethel,
“Your festivals shall be turned into mourning
and all your songs[d] into lamentation.”
And I wept.(B)
Tobit Becomes Blind
7 When the sun had set, I went and dug a grave and buried him.(C)8 And my neighbors laughed and said, “Is he still not afraid? He has already been hunted down to be put to death for doing this, and he ran away, yet here he is again burying the dead!”(D)9 That same night I washed myself and went into my courtyard and lay down by the wall of the courtyard; my face was uncovered because of the heat.(E)10 I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall; their fresh droppings fell into my eyes and produced white films. I went to physicians to be healed, but the more they treated me with ointments, the more my vision was obscured by the white films, until I became completely blind. For four years I remained unable to see. All my kindred were sorry for me, and Ahikar took care of me for two years before he went to Elymais.(F)
Tobit’s Wife Earns Their Livelihood
11 At that time my wife Anna earned money at women’s work. 12 She used to send what she made to the owners, and they would pay wages to her. One day, the seventh of Dystrus, when she cut off a piece she had woven and sent it to the owners, they paid her full wages and also gave her a young goat for a meal. 13 When it came toward me, the goat began to bleat, so I called her and said, “Where did you get this goat? It is surely not stolen, is it? Return it to the owners, for we have no right to eat anything stolen.”(G)14 But she said to me, “It was given to me as a gift in addition to my wages.” But I did not believe her and told her to return it to the owners. I became flushed with anger against her over this. Then she replied to me, “Where are your acts of charity? Where are your righteous deeds? These things are known about you!”[e](H)
Footnotes
- 2.1Q ms: S Then under
- 2.1Gk Sacherdonos
- 2.2OL: S lacks of God
- 2.6OL mss: S reads ways
- 2.14Or to you; Gk with you