Tobit 1

¹ The tale of Tobit[*a] son of Tobiel, son of Ananiel, son of Aduel, son of Gabael, of the lineage of Asiel and tribe of Naphtali.

² In the days of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, he was exiled from Thisbe, which is south of Kedesh-Naphtali in Upper Galilee, above Hazor, some distance to the West, north of Shephat.

³ I, Tobit, have walked in paths of truth and in good works all the days of my life. I have given much in alms to my brothers and fellow countrymen, exiled like me to Nineveh in the country of Assyria.

⁴ In my young days, when I still was at home in the country of Israel, the whole tribe of Naphtali my ancestor broke away from the House of David and from Jerusalem. Yet this was the city chosen out of all the tribes of Israel for their sacrifices; in this the Temple – God’s dwelling place – had been built and hallowed for all generations to come.

⁵ But all my brothers and the House of Naphtali offered sacrifice to the calf that Jeroboam the king of Israel had made at Dan, on the mountains of Galilee.

⁶ Often I was quite alone in making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, fulfilling the law that binds all Israel perpetually. I would hurry to Jerusalem with the first yield of fruits and beasts, the tithe of cattle and the sheep’s first shearings.

⁷ I would give these to the priests, the sons of Aaron, for the altar. To the Levites ministering at Jerusalem I would give my tithe of wine and corn, olives, pomegranates and other fruits. Six years in succession I took the second tithe in money and went and paid it at Jerusalem.

⁸ I gave the third to orphans and widows and to the strangers who live among the Israelites; I brought it them as a gift every three years. When we ate, we obeyed both the ordinances of the Law of Moses and the exhortations of Deborah, the mother of our father Ananiel; for my father had died and left me an orphan.

⁹ When I came to man’s estate, I married a woman from our kinsmen whose name was Anna; she bore me a son whom I called Tobias.

¹⁰ <11 When the banishment into Assyria came, I was taken away and went to Nineveh. All my brothers and the men of my race ate the food of the heathen,

¹¹ <12 but for my part I would not eat the food of the heathen.[*b]

¹² <13 And because I had kept faith with my God with my whole heart,

¹³ the Most High granted me the favour of Shalmaneser, and I became the king’s purveyor.

¹⁴ <16 Until his death I used to travel to Media, where I transacted business on his behalf; and I deposited sacks of silver worth ten talents with Gabael, the brother of Gabrias, at Rhages in Media.

¹⁵ <18 On the death of Shalmaneser his son Sennacherib succeeded; the roads into Media were barred, and I could no longer go there.

¹⁶ In the days of Shalmaneser I had often given alms to the brothers of my race;

¹⁷ <20 I gave my bread to the hungry and clothes to the naked; and I buried, when I saw them, the bodies of my countrymen thrown over the walls of Nineveh.

¹⁸ <21 I also buried those who were killed by Sennacherib (for when he retreated from Judaea in disorder, after the King of heaven had punished his blasphemies, in his anger Sennacherib killed a great number of Israelites). So I stole their bodies to bury them; Sennacherib looked for them and could not find them.

¹⁹ <22 A Ninevite went and told the king it was I who had buried them secretly. When I knew that the king had been told about me and saw myself being hunted by men who would put me to death, I was afraid and fled.

²⁰ All my goods were seized; they were all confiscated by the treasury; nothing was left me but my wife Anna and my son Tobias.

²¹ <24 Less than forty days after this, the king was murdered by his two sons, who then fled to the mountains of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded. Ahikar,[*c] the son of my brother Anael, was appointed chancellor of the exchequer for the kingdom and given the main ordering of affairs.

²² Ahikar then interceded for me and I was allowed to return to Nineveh, since Ahikar had been chief cup-bearer, keeper of the signet, administrator and treasurer under Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and Esarhaddon had kept him in office. He was a relation of mine; he was my nephew.