Tobit 1:3-3:6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
I. Tobit’s Ordeals
His Virtue. 3 I, Tobit, have walked all the days of my life on paths of fidelity and righteousness. I performed many charitable deeds for my kindred and my people who had been taken captive with me to Nineveh, in the land of the Assyrians. 4 When I lived as a young man in my own country, in the land of Israel, the entire tribe of my ancestor Naphtali broke away from the house of David, my ancestor, and from Jerusalem, the city that had been singled out of all Israel’s tribes that all Israel might offer sacrifice there. It was the place where the temple, God’s dwelling, had been built and consecrated for all generations to come. 5 (A)All my kindred, as well as the house of Naphtali, my ancestor, used to offer sacrifice on every hilltop in Galilee to the calf that Jeroboam, king of Israel, had made in Dan.[a]
6 (B)But I alone used to go often to Jerusalem for the festivals, as was prescribed for all Israel by longstanding decree.[b] Bringing with me the first fruits of crops, the firstlings of the flock, the tithes of livestock, and the first shearings of sheep,(C) I used to hasten to Jerusalem 7 (D)and present them to the priests, Aaron’s sons, at the altar. To the Levites ministering in Jerusalem I used to give the tithe of grain, wine, olive oil, pomegranates, figs, and other fruits. Six years in a row, I used to give a second tithe in money, which each year I would go to pay in Jerusalem. 8 The third-year tithe I gave to orphans, widows, and converts who had joined the Israelites. Every third year I would bring them this offering, and we ate it in keeping with the decree laid down in the Mosaic law concerning it, and according to the commands of Deborah, the mother of my father Tobiel; for my father had died and left me an orphan.
9 When I reached manhood, I married Anna, a woman of our ancestral family. By her I had a son whom I named Tobiah. 10 Now, after I had been deported to the Assyrians and came as a captive to Nineveh, all my kindred and my people used to eat the food of the Gentiles,(E) 11 but I refrained from eating that Gentile food. 12 Because I was mindful of God with all my heart, 13 the Most High granted me favor and status with Shalmaneser, so that I became purchasing agent for all his needs.(F) 14 Until he died, I would go to Media to buy goods for him there. I also deposited pouches of silver worth ten talents[c] in trust with my kinsman Gabael, son of Gabri, who lived at Rages, in the land of Media. 15 When Shalmaneser died and his son Sennacherib[d] came to rule in his stead, the roads to Media became unsafe, so I could no longer go to Media.
Courage in Burying the Dead. 16 In the days of Shalmaneser I had performed many charitable deeds for my kindred, members of my people. 17 (G)I would give my bread to the hungry and clothing to the naked. If I saw one of my people who had died and been thrown behind the wall of Nineveh, I used to bury him.[e] 18 Sennacherib returned from Judea, having fled during the days of the judgment enacted against him by the King of Heaven because of the blasphemies he had uttered; whomever he killed I buried. For in his rage he killed many Israelites, but I used to take their bodies away by stealth and bury them. So when Sennacherib looked for them, he could not find them. 19 But a certain Ninevite went and informed the king about me, that I was burying them, and I went into hiding. When I realized that the king knew about me and that I was being hunted to be put to death, I became afraid and took flight. 20 All my property was confiscated; I was left with nothing. All that I had was taken to the king’s palace, except for my wife Anna and my son Tobiah.[f]
21 But forty days did not pass before two of the king’s sons assassinated him and fled to the mountains of Ararat. A son of his, Esarhaddon,[g] succeeded him as king. He put Ahiqar, my kinsman Anael’s son, in charge of all the credit accounts of his kingdom, and he took control over the entire administration.(H) 22 Then Ahiqar interceded on my behalf, and I returned to Nineveh. Ahiqar had been chief cupbearer, keeper of the signet ring, treasury accountant, and credit accountant under Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians; and Esarhaddon appointed him as Second to himself. He was, in fact, my nephew, of my father’s house, and of my own family.
Chapter 2
1 Thus under King Esarhaddon I returned to my home, and my wife Anna and my son Tobiah were restored to me. Then on our festival of Pentecost, the holy feast of Weeks,[h] a fine dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat.(I) 2 The table was set for me, and the dishes placed before me were many. So I said to my son Tobiah: “Son, go out and bring in whatever poor person you find among our kindred exiled here in Nineveh who may be a sincere worshiper of God to share this meal with me. Indeed, son, I shall wait for you to come back.”[i]
3 Tobiah went out to look for some poor person among our kindred, but he came back and cried, “Father!” I said to him, “Here I am, son.” He answered, “Father, one of our people has been murdered! He has been thrown out into the market place, and there he lies strangled.” 4 I sprang to my feet, leaving the dinner untouched, carried the dead man from the square, and put him in one of the rooms until sundown, so that I might bury him. 5 I returned and washed[j] and in sorrow ate my food.(J) 6 I remembered the oracle pronounced by the prophet Amos against Bethel:(K)
“I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into dirges.”
7 Then I wept. At sunset I went out, dug a grave, and buried him.
8 My neighbors mocked me, saying: “Does he have no fear? Once before he was hunted, to be executed for this sort of deed, and he ran away; yet here he is again burying the dead!”
Tobit’s Blindness. 9 That same night I washed and went into my courtyard, where I lay down to sleep beside the wall. Because of the heat I left my face uncovered. 10 I did not know that sparrows were perched on the wall above me; their warm droppings settled in my eyes, causing white scales[k] on them. I went to doctors for a cure, but the more they applied ointments, the more my vision was obscured by the white scales, until I was totally blind. For four years I was unable to see, and all my kindred were distressed at my condition. Ahiqar, however, took care of me for two years, until he left for Elam.
11 At that time my wife Anna worked for hire at weaving cloth, doing the kind of work women do. 12 When she delivered the material to her employers, they would pay her a wage. On the seventh day of the month of Dystrus,[l] she finished the woven cloth and delivered it to her employers. They paid her the full salary and also gave her a young goat for a meal. 13 On entering my house, the goat began to bleat. So I called to my wife and said: “Where did this goat come from? It was not stolen, was it? Give it back to its owners; we have no right to eat anything stolen!” 14 (L)But she said to me, “It was given to me as a bonus over and above my wages.” Yet I would not believe her and told her to give it back to its owners. I flushed with anger at her over this. So she retorted: “Where are your charitable deeds now? Where are your righteous acts? Look! All that has happened to you is well known!”[m]
Chapter 3
1 Then sad at heart, I groaned and wept aloud. With sobs I began to pray:[n]
Tobit’s Prayer for Death
2 “You are righteous, Lord,
and all your deeds are just;
All your ways are mercy and fidelity;
you are judge of the world.(M)
3 And now, Lord, be mindful of me
and look with favor upon me.
Do not punish me for my sins,
or for my inadvertent offenses,
or for those of my ancestors.(N)
“They sinned against you,
4 and disobeyed your commandments.
So you handed us over to plunder, captivity, and death,
to become an object lesson, a byword, and a reproach
in all the nations among whom you scattered us.(O)
5 “Yes, your many judgments are right
in dealing with me as my sins,
and those of my ancestors, deserve.
For we have neither kept your commandments,
nor walked in fidelity before you.
6 “So now, deal with me as you please;
command my life breath to be taken from me,
that I may depart from the face of the earth and become dust.
It is better for me to die than to live,[o]
because I have listened to undeserved reproaches,
and great is the grief within me.(P)
“Lord, command that I be released from such anguish;
let me go to my everlasting abode;
Do not turn your face away from me, Lord.
For it is better for me to die
than to endure so much misery in life,
and to listen to such reproaches!”
Footnotes
- 1:5 Jeroboam established sanctuaries in Dan and Bethel so that the people would no longer have to go to Jerusalem for the festivals. The gold statues of calves that he placed in the sanctuaries were considered the throne of Yhwh; but the people may have tended to worship the images themselves. Jeroboam also encouraged high places or hilltop shrines (1 Kgs 12:26–33).
- 1:6–8 Longstanding decree: Dt 12:11, 13–14. Refusing to worship at Jeroboam’s shrines, the faithful Tobit continued to bring his offerings to Jerusalem; see 2 Chr 11:16. For the various tithes, cf. Lv 27:30–33; Nm 18:20–32; 2 Chr 31:4–6; Dt 14:22–29; 26:12–13.
- 1:14 Silver worth ten talents: a great sum of money; about ten thousand dollars, at least. Rages: modern Rai, about five miles southeast of Tehran. Media: the northwestern part of modern Iran.
- 1:15 Sennacherib (705–681 B.C.): the son of Sargon II; neither was descended from Shalmaneser. On such historical inconsistencies, see Introduction; also notes on 5:6; 6:2; 9:2; 14:15.
- 1:17–18 Tobit risked his own life to bury the dead. Deprivation of burial was viewed with horror by the Jews. Cf. 4:3–4; 6:15; 14:12–13.
- 1:20 Tobiah: the son bears the fuller form of his father’s name; see note on 1:1.
- 1:21 Esarhaddon: 681–669 B.C. Ahiqar: a hero of ancient folklore, known for his outstanding wisdom. The Story (or Wisdom) of Ahiqar was very popular in antiquity and is extant in many different forms: Aramaic, Syriac, Armenian, Arabic (Arabian Nights), Greek (Aesop’s Fables), Slavonic, Ethiopic, and Romanian. The sacred author makes Tobit the uncle of the famous Ahiqar in order to enhance Tobit’s own prestige. See note on 14:10.
- 2:1 Feast of Weeks: also called by its Greek name, Pentecost, was celebrated fifty days after the Passover. Cf. Lv 23:15–21; Dt 16:9–12.
- 2:2 Almsgiving and charity to the poor are important virtues taught by the book (4:7–11, 16–17; 12:8–9; 14:10–11). A sincere worshiper of God: lit., “who is mindful of God with the whole heart.”
- 2:5 Washed: because of ritual defilement from touching a corpse (Nm 19:11–13).
- 2:10 White scales: or white films. A primitive way of describing an eye ailment that results in blindness. Elam: or in Greek, Elymais, an ancient district northeast of the head of the Persian Gulf.
- 2:12 Seventh day of the month of Dystrus: late in winter. The Macedonian month Dystros corresponds to the Jewish month of Shebat (January–February). A meal: lit., “for the hearth”; the gift had probably been made in view of some springtime festival like the Jewish Purim.
- 2:14 Anna’s sharp rebuke calls to mind the words of Job’s wife (Jb 2:9).
- 3:1 Pray: prayer is a significant theme, occurring at six major turning points in the story (3:2–6, 11–15; 8:5–8, 15–17; 11:14–15; 13:1–18).
- 3:6 It is better for me to die than to live: in his distress Tobit uses the words of the petulant Jonah (Jon 4:3, 8), who wished to die because God did not destroy the hated Ninevites. In similar circumstances, Moses (Nm 11:15), Elijah (1 Kgs 19:4), and Job (Jb 7:15) also prayed for death. Everlasting abode: a reference to Sheol, the dismal abode of the dead from which no one returns (Jb 7:9–10; 14:12; Is 26:14). See note on Tb 4:6.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.