Tobit 2

¹ In the reign of Esarhaddon, therefore, I returned home, and my wife Anna was restored to me with my son Tobias. At our feast of Pentecost (the feast of Weeks) there was a good dinner. I took my place for the meal;

² the table was brought to me and various dishes were brought. Then I said to my son Tobias, ‘Go, my child, and seek out some poor, loyal-hearted man among our brothers exiled in Nineveh, and bring him to share my meal. I will wait until you come back, my child.’

³ So Tobias went out to look for some poor man among our brothers, but he came back again and said, ‘Father!’ I answered, ‘What is it, my child?’ He went on, ‘Father, one of our nation has just been murdered; he has been strangled and then thrown down in the market place; he is there still’.

⁴ I sprang up at once, left my meal untouched, took the man from the market place and laid him in one of my rooms, waiting until sunset to bury him.

⁵ I came in again and washed myself and ate my bread in sorrow,

⁶ remembering the words of the prophet Amos concerning Bethel: Your feasts will be turned to mourning, and all your songs to lamentation.

⁷ And I wept. When the sun was down, I went and dug a grave and buried him.

⁸ My neighbours laughed and said, ‘See! He is not afraid any more.’ (You must remember that a price had been set on my head earlier for this very thing.) ‘The time before this he had to flee, yet here he is, beginning to bury the dead again.’

⁹ <10 That night I took a bath; then I went into the courtyard and lay down by the courtyard wall. Since it was hot I left my face uncovered.

¹⁰ <11 I did not know that there were sparrows in the wall above my head; their hot droppings fell into my eyes. White spots then formed, which I was obliged to have treated by the doctors. But the more ointments they tried me with, the more the spots blinded me, and in the end I became blind altogether. I remained without sight four years; all my brothers were distressed; and Ahikar provided for my upkeep for two years, till he left for Elymais.

¹¹ <19 My wife Anna then undertook woman’s work; she would spin wool and take cloth to weave;

¹² she used to deliver whatever had been ordered from her and then receive payment. Now on March the seventh she finished a piece of work <20 and delivered it to her customers. They paid her all that was due, and into the bargain presented her with a kid for a meal.

¹³ <21 When the kid came into my house, it began to bleat. I called to my wife and said, ‘Where does this creature come from? Suppose it has been stolen! Quick, let the owners have it back; we have no right to eat stolen goods.’

¹⁴ She said, ‘No, it was a present given me over and above my wages.’ I did not believe her, and told her to give it back to the owners <22 (I blushed at this in her presence). Then she answered, ‘What about your own alms? What about your own good works? Everyone knows what return you have had for them.’