21 And when Esarhaddon was king I came home again, and my wife Anna was restored unto me, and my son Tobias. And at our feast of the Pentecost, which is the holy Feast of the Weeks, there was a good dinner prepared me; and I laid me down to dine. 2 And the table was set for me, and abundant victuals were set for me, and I said unto Tobias my son, Go, my boy, and what poor man soever thou shalt find of our brethren of the Ninevite captives, who is mindful 〈of God〉 with his whole heart, bring him and he shall eat together with me; and lo, I tarry for thee, my boy, until thou come. 3 And Tobias went to seek some poor man of our brethren and returned and said, Father. And I said to him, Here am I, my child. And he answered and said, Father, behold, one of our nation hath been murdered and cast out in the marketplace, and he hath but now been strangled. 4 And I sprang up and left my dinner before I had tasted it, and took him up from the street and put him in one of the chambers until the sun was set, to bury him. 5 Therefore I returned and washed myself, 6 and ate food with mourning, and remembered the word of the prophet which Amos spake against Bethel, saying,

Your feasts shall be turned into mourning,

And all your ways into lamentation.

7 And I wept. 8 And when the sun was set, I went and digged a grave and buried him. And my neighbours mocked, saying, Is he no longer afraid?—for already I had been sought after to be put to death for this matter—And yet he fled away 〈and lost all his possessions〉 and lo, again, he burieth the dead! 9 And the same night I washed myself and came into my courtyard and lay down to sleep by the wall of the courtyard, and my face was uncovered because of the heat. 10 And I knew not that there were sparrows in the wall above me; and their dung settled warm into mine eyes and brought up white films; and I used to go to the physicians to be healed; and the more they anointed me with their medicaments, the more mine eyes were blinded by the films, until they were totally blinded. And I was impotent in mine eyes four years. And all my brethren did grieve for me, and Aḥiḳar nourished me two years until he went to Elymais.

11 And at that time my wife Anna used to work for hire in the tasks of women, 12 and would send the tasks back to their owners: and they would pay her the wages. And on the seventh of Dystrus, she cut off the web, and sent it home to the owners and they gave her all her wages, and gave her in addition to the wages a kid of the goats. 13 And when she came into my house, the kid began to cry, and I called her and said, Whence is this kid? is it stolen? Render it to its owners; for we have no right to eat anything that is stolen. 14 And she said unto me, It hath indeed been given me over and above the wages. And I did not believe her, and I bade her render it to the owners; and I was abashed at her because of this. Then she answered and said unto me, And where are thine alms-deeds? Where is thy righteous course of life? Behold, this thy case is known.

3. TOBIT’S PREFATORY PRAYER, 3:1–6.