Tobit and his background

1 This scroll is a story told by Tobit. He was the son of Tobiel son of Hananiel son of Aduel son of Gabael son of Raphael son of Raguel, whose family came from Asiel, of the Naphtali tribe. ² In the days of Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians, he was captured in Thisbe, south of Kedesh-naphtali in the upper hills of Galilee, northwest of Hazor and north of Peor.

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!”

Psalm 112^[a]

Parable of the tenant farmers

12 Jesus spoke to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower. Then he rented it to tenant farmers and took a trip. ² When it was time, he sent a servant to collect from the tenants his share of the fruit of the vineyard. ³ But they grabbed the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again the landowner sent another servant to them, but they struck him on the head and treated him disgracefully. ⁵ He sent another one; that one they killed. The landlord sent many other servants, but the tenants beat some and killed others. ⁶ Now the landowner had one son whom he loved dearly. He sent him last, thinking, They will respect my son. ⁷ But those tenant farmers said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ They grabbed him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹ “So what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Haven’t you read this scripture, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ¹¹ The Lord has done this, and it’s amazing in our eyes?”^[a]

¹² They wanted to arrest Jesus because they knew that he had told the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.