Tobit 2
2
Tobit Becomes Blind
1 #
Ex 23.16. I returned to my home while Esarhaddon#2.1 Esarhaddon: See the note at 1.21. was king; my wife Anna and my son Tobias were allowed to come back to me.
That year at the Harvest Festival,#2.1 the Harvest Festival: Greek “Pentecost”; at this festival, Israelites celebrated the wheat harvest. “Pentecost” means “fifty,” and this festival was held in mid-spring, fifty days after Passover. which is also called the Festival of Weeks,#2.1 also called the Festival of Weeks: Because it was held seven weeks and one day after Passover. a wonderful dinner was prepared for me, and I sat down to eat. 2But so much food was put on the table that I said to Tobias, “Son, many other Israelites were brought to Nineveh as captives. Go out and find someone who is poor and very loyal to God. Bring him here to share this meal with us. We will wait until you get back.”
3Tobias went out to look for some Israelites who were poor. But he returned alone and said, “Father!”
“What's the matter?” I asked.
“An Israelite has been murdered!” Tobias answered. “He was strangled, then his body was thrown down and left lying in the street.”#2.3 street: The Greek text has “marketplace,” usually a public square or wide street where people would buy and sell food and other items.
4We had not started eating, and so I jumped up from the table and went to the street where the body was. I brought it back to my own home and left it in one of the rooms, because I could not bury it until after dark.#2.4 I could not … dark: Probably because the Harvest Festival would end at sunset. 5#Nu 19.11-13. Then I washed myself and ate the festival meal, but I was very sad. 6#Am 8.10. I remembered that the prophet Amos had said, “Your festivals and joyful singing will turn into sorrow,” and 7I began crying.
Later, after the sun had set, I went out and dug a grave and buried the body. 8My neighbors made fun of me and said to each other, “Tobit had to go into hiding once, when the king tried to have him arrested and put to death for burying people like this one. You would think Tobit would be afraid to do the same thing again.”
9That night after I washed, I went into my courtyard and lay down next to the wall. The night was so hot that I wanted to sleep under the open sky. 10I didn't know that some sparrows were perched on the wall above me. Their fresh droppings fell right into my eyes, and a film of white spots started covering the clear part of my eyes.
I went to doctors and looked for a cure, but the more medicine they smeared on my eyes, the worse the white spots became, until at last I could not see a thing and was completely blind for four years. All my relatives felt sorry for me, and for two of those years, Ahikar gave me money to live on, but then he had to move to Elymais.
11-12After Ahikar left Nineveh, my wife worked at home. She would weave a piece of cloth, and when it was finished, she would send it to the owners of the weaving business, and they would pay her. Then, on the seventh day of the month of Dystrus,#2.11,12 Dystrus: The month in the Macedonian calendar that is about the same as March. my wife finished a piece of cloth and sent it to the owners. They gave her the regular payment, and they also gave her a young goat, so we could have a feast.
13When she came back, the goat was going, “baa, baa.” So I yelled at her and said, “Where did you get that goat? You must have stolen it! Take it back to its owner. We shouldn't eat something that is stolen—it just wouldn't be right.”
14She replied, “That goat was given to me as a gift along with the usual payment for my work!”
But I didn't believe her, and my face was red with anger as I told her to return the goat to its owners.
She answered, “Tobit, why have you changed so much? You used to be so kind, and, as everyone knows, you always did the right thing!”
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Tobit 2
2
A Family Celebration
1 #
Ex 23.16
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. 2When I saw how much food there was on the table, I said to Tobias, “My son, go out and find some fellow-Jew 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
3So 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 market-place.”
4I 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#Num 19.11–13Then I returned home and washed, so as to purify myself. In deep sorrow I ate my dinner. 6#Amos 8.10I 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.
7After sunset I went out, dug a grave, and buried the man. 8My neighbours thought I was mad. “Haven't you learnt anything?” they asked. “You have already been in danger 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
9That 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. 10Sparrows 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
11After Ahikar left, my wife Anna had to go to work, so she took up weaving, like many other women. 12The 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.
13When 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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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.