Tobit 2 - Meaning, Themes & Application

Now when I had come home again, and my wife Anna was restored to me, and my son Tobias, in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks, there was a good dinner prepared for me, and I sat down to eat.

I saw abundance of meat, and I said to my son, “Go and bring whatever poor man you find of our kindred, who is mindful of the Lord. Behold, I wait for you.”

Then he came, and said, “Father, one of our race is strangled, and has been cast out in the marketplace.”

Before I had tasted anything, I sprang up, and took him up into a chamber until the sun had set.

Then I returned, washed myself, ate my bread in heaviness,

and remembered the prophecy of Amos, as he said, “Your feasts will be turned into mourning, and all your mirth into lamentation.

So I wept: and when the sun had set, I went and dug a grave, and buried him.

My neighbors mocked me, and said, “He is no longer afraid to be put to death for this matter; and yet he fled away. Behold, he buries the dead again.”

The same night I returned from burying him, and slept by the wall of my courtyard, being polluted; and my face was uncovered.

I didn’t know that there were sparrows in the wall. My eyes were open and the sparrows dropped warm dung into my eyes, and white films came over my eyes. I went to the physicians, and they didn’t help me; but Achiacharus nourished me, until I went into Elymais.

My wife Anna wove cloth in the women’s chambers,

and sent the work back to the owners. They on their part paid her wages, and also gave her a kid.

But when it came to my house, it began to cry, and I said to her, “Where did this kid come from? Is it stolen? Give it back to the owners; for it is not lawful to eat anything that is stolen.”

But she said, “It has been given to me for a gift more than the wages.” I didn’t believe her, and I asked her to return it to the owners; and I was ashamed of her. But she answered and said to me, “Where are your alms and your righteous deeds? Behold, you and all your works are known.”