Tobit 2

When I arrived home and my wife Anna and my son Tobias were restored to me, at the feast of Pentecost, which is the sacred festival of the seven weeks, a good dinner was prepared for me and I sat down to eat.

Upon seeing the abundance of food I said to my son, “Go and bring whatever poor man of our brethren you may find among the exiles in Nineveh, who is mindful of the Lord, and he shall eat together with me. I will wait for you until you come back.”

So Tobias went out to look for some poor person of our people. When he came back, he said, “Father!” And I replied, “Here I am, my child.” And he went on to say, “Look, Father, one of our own people has been murdered and thrown into the market place, and now he lies there strangled.”

So before I tasted anything I sprang up and removed the body to a place of shelter until sunset when I might bury it.

And when I returned I washed myself and ate my food in sorrow.

Then I remembered the prophecy of Amos, how he said against Bethel, “Your feasts shall be turned into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation.” And I wept.

When the sun had set I went and dug a grave and buried the body.

And my neighbors laughed at me and said, “He is 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 burying the dead again!”

On the same night after I, Tobit, returned from burying the dead, I went into my courtyard and slept by the wall of the courtyard, and my face was uncovered because of the heat.

I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall and their fresh droppings fell into my open eyes and white films formed on my eyes. 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 until he went to Elymais.

Then my wife Anna earned money at women’s work.

She used to send the product to the owners, and they paid her wages. 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 they also gave her a kid.

When she returned to me it began to bleat. So I called her and said to her, “Where did you get the kid? It is not stolen, is it? Return it to the owners; for it is not right to eat what is stolen.”

And she said, “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; and I blushed for her. Then she replied to me, “Where are your charities and your righteous deeds? You seem to know everything!”