Tobit 2

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition

2 Then during the reign of Esar-haddon^[a] 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. ² When the table was set for me and an abundance of food placed before me, I said to my son Tobias, ‘Go, my child, and bring whatever poor person you may find of our people among the exiles in Nineveh, who is wholeheartedly mindful of God,^[b] and he shall eat together with me. I will wait for you, until you come back.’ ³ So Tobias went to look for some poor person of our people. When he had returned he said, ‘Father!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am, my child.’ Then 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.’ ⁴ Then I sprang up, left the dinner before even tasting it, and removed the body^[c] from the square^[d] and laid it^[e] in one of the rooms until sunset when I might bury it.^{[f] 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,^[g]

And I wept.

Tobit Becomes Blind

⁷ When the sun had set, I went and dug a grave and buried him. ⁸ And my neighbours 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!’ ⁹ That same night I washed myself and went into my courtyard and slept by the wall of the courtyard; and my face was uncovered because of the heat. 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.

Tobit’s Wife Earns Their Livelihood

¹¹ At that time, also, 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 kid for a meal. ¹³ When she returned to me, the kid began to bleat. So I called her and said, ‘Where did you get this kid? It is surely not stolen, is it? Return it to the owners; for we have no right to eat anything stolen.’ 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!’^[h]