Tobit 2
Common English Bible
2 When I returned to my house in the time of King Esarhaddon, my wife Anna and my son Tobias were restored to me.
Tobit is blinded
During our Festival of Pentecost, which is the holy Festival of Weeks, a splendid meal was cooked for me, and I lay down to eat. 2 The table was set before me, and many fine foods were brought to me. Then I said to my son Tobias, “Go, my son, and find one of our poorer relatives captive here in Nineveh, someone who pays attention to God with all his heart. Bring him here to eat with me. I will wait here, son, until you return.”
3 Tobias left to find some poor person among our relatives. When he returned, he said, “Father?”
I answered, “I’m here, my son.”
He exclaimed, “Father, one of our people has been murdered and tossed into the marketplace; his strangled body is just lying there.”
4 I got up and left the meal before tasting it. I removed the body from the street and placed it in one of the smaller houses until sunset when I would bury it. 5 Then, when I returned, I washed myself and ate my food in sadness. 6 I remembered the word that Amos the prophet pronounced against Bethel: Your festivals will be transformed into sadness and all your songs[a] into sorrowful wailing.[b] And I wept.
7 After sunset I went out, dug a hole, and buried him. 8 My neighbors made fun of me, saying, “Is he no longer afraid that he will be killed for doing this kind of thing? He ran away, but now look: he is burying the dead again!”
9 That night I washed myself and went into my courtyard and fell asleep alongside the courtyard wall, with my face uncovered because of the heat. 10 I didn’t know that there were sparrows in the wall above me, and their warm droppings fell into my eyes, forming white spots. I went to doctors to be healed, but the more they applied their medicines on me, the worse the white spots became until I was completely blinded. I couldn’t see with my eyes for four years. All my relatives felt sorry for me, and Ahikar took care of me for two years until he went to Elymais.
Tobit’s plight worsens
11 At that time my wife Anna made a living by weaving cloth out of wool.[c] 12 She would send the cloth to the wool suppliers,[d] and they would pay her for it. On the seventh day of Dystrus,[e] she finished a piece on the loom for her employers. They gave her the full wages, along with a young goat from their herd for her home. 13 When it approached me, the kid began to bleat. So I called to Anna and said, “Where does this goat come from? It isn’t stolen, is it? Return it to its owners, for we have no right to eat anything that is stolen!”
14 But she said to me, “It was given to me as a bonus in addition to my pay.” I didn’t believe her and demanded that she return it to the owners. I grew red with anger at her. But she replied and said to me, “And what’s become of your charitable donations? What’s become of your righteous deeds? You have a reputation for that sort of thing, don’t you?!”[f]
Footnotes
- Tobit 2:6 Gk paths
- Tobit 2:6 Amos 8:10
- Tobit 2:11 Gk by doing women’s work
- Tobit 2:12 Or to its owners
- Tobit 2:12 March
- Tobit 2:14 Gk Where are your charitable donations now? Where are your righteous deeds? See, these things are known about you!
Tobit 2
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
2 But after this, when there was a festival of the Lord, and a good dinner was prepared in Tobias's house,
2 He said to his son: Go, and bring some of our tribe that fear God, to feast with us.
3 And when he had gone, returning he told him, that one of the children of Israel lay slain in the street. And he forthwith leaped up from his place at the table, and left his dinner, and came fasting to the body:
4 And taking it up carried it privately to his house, that after the sun was down, he might bury him cautiously.
5 And when he had hid the body, he ate bread with mourning and fear,
6 Remembering the word which the Lord spoke by Amos the prophet: Your festival days shall be turned into lamentation and mourning.
7 So when the sun was down, he went and buried him.
8 Now all his neighbours blamed him, saying: Once already commandment was given for thee to be slain because of this matter, and thou didst scarce escape the sentence of death, and dost thou again bury the dead?
9 But Tobias fearing God more than the king, carried off the bodies of them that were slain, and hid them in his house, and at midnight buried them.
10 Now it happened one day, that being wearied with burying, he came to his house, and cast himself down by the wall and slept,
11 And as he was sleeping, hot dung out of a swallow's nest fell upon his eyes, and he was made blind.
12 Now this trial the Lord therefore permitted to happen to him, that an example might be given to posterity of his patience, as also of holy Job.
13 For whereas he had always feared God from his infancy, and kept his commandments, he repined not against God because the evil of blindness had befallen him,
14 But continued immoveable in the fear of God, giving thanks to God all the days of his life.
15 For as the kings insulted over holy Job: so his relations and kinsmen mocked at his life, saying:
16 Where is thy hope, for which thou gavest alms, and buriedst the dead?
17 But Tobias rebuked them, saying: Speak not so:
18 For we are the children of the saints, and look for that life which God will give to those that never change their faith from him.
19 Now Anna his wife went daily to weaving work, and she brought home what she could get for their living by the labour of her hands.
20 Whereby it came to pass, that she received a young kid, and brought it home:
21 And when her husband heard it bleating, he said: Take heed, lest perhaps it be stolen: restore ye it to its owners, for it is not lawful for us either to eat or to touch any thing that cometh by theft.
22 At these words his wife being angry answered: It is evident thy hope is come to nothing, and thy alms now appear.
23 And with these, and other such like words she upbraided him.
Tobit 2
Good News Translation
A Family Celebration
2 (A)When I returned home I was reunited with my wife Anna and my son Tobias. At the Harvest Festival, which is also called the Festival of Weeks, I sat down to a delicious meal. 2 When I saw how much food there was on the table, I said to Tobias,
Son, go out and find one of our people who is living in poverty here in exile, someone who takes God's commands seriously. Bring him back with you, so that he can share this festival meal with us. I won't start eating until you come back.
A Murder in Nineveh
3 So Tobias went out to look for such a person. But he quickly returned, shouting,
Father! Father!
Yes, what is it? I asked.
One of our people has just been murdered! Someone strangled him and threw his body into the marketplace.
4 I jumped up and left the table without even touching my food. I removed the body from the street and carried it to a little shed, where I left it until sunset, when I could bury it. 5 (B)Then I returned home and washed, so as to purify myself. In deep sorrow I ate my dinner. 6 (C)I was reminded of what the prophet Amos had said to the people of Bethel,
Your festivals will be turned into funerals,
and your glad songs will become cries of grief.
I began to weep.
7 After sunset I went out, dug a grave, and buried the man. 8 My neighbors thought I was crazy.
Haven't you learned anything? they asked.
You have already been hunted down once for burying the dead, and you would have been killed if you had not run away. But here you are doing the same thing all over again.
Tobit Is Blinded
9 That night I washed, so as to purify myself, and went out into my courtyard to sleep by the wall. It was a hot night, and I did not pull the cover up over my head. 10 Sparrows were on the wall right above me, but I did not know it. Their warm droppings fell into my eyes, causing a white film to form on them. I went to one doctor after another, but the more they treated me with their medicines, the worse my eyes became, until finally I was completely blind.
For four years I could see nothing. My relatives were deeply concerned about my condition, and Ahikar supported me for two years before he went to the land of Elam.
A Family Quarrel
11 After Ahikar left, my wife Anna had to go to work, so she took up weaving, like many other women. 12 The people she worked for would pay her when she delivered the cloth. One spring day, she cut a finished piece of cloth from the loom and took it to the people who had ordered it. They paid her the full price and also gave her a goat.
13 When Anna came home with the goat, it began to bleat. I called out,
Where did that goat come from? You stole it, didn't you? Take it straight back to its owners. It's not right to eat stolen food!
14 No! she replied.
It was given to me as a gift in addition to what I got for the cloth. But I didn't believe her, and I blushed for shame for what she had done. I ordered her to return the goat to its owners, but she had the last word.
Now I see what you are really like! she shouted.
Where is all that concern of yours for others? What about all those good deeds you used to do?
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