> [[tobit-01|← Previous]] | [[tobit-00|TOC]] | [[tobit-03|Next →]] --- # Tobit, Chapter 2 ## 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, a fine dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat. ^tobit-02-1 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.” ^tobit-02-3 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. ^tobit-02-4 5 I returned and washed and in sorrow ate my food. ^tobit-02-5 6 I remembered the oracle pronounced by the prophet Amos against Bethel: ^tobit-02-6 “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. ^tobit-02-7 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-02-8 **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. ^tobit-02-9 10 I did not know that sparrows were perched on the wall above me; their warm droppings settled in my eyes, causing white scales 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. ^tobit-02-10 11 At that time my wife Anna worked for hire at weaving cloth, doing the kind of work women do. ^tobit-02-11 12 When she delivered the material to her employers, they would pay her a wage. On the seventh day of the month of Dystrus, 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. ^tobit-02-12 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!” ^tobit-02-13 14 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!” ^tobit-02-14 \* (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]). a. (2:1) [Lv 23:15] – [21]; [Nm 28:26] – [31]; [Dt 16:9] – [12]. b. (2:5) [Nm 19:11] – [22]. c. (2:6) [1 Mc 1:39]; [Am 8:10]. d. (2:14) [Jb 2:9]. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[tobit-01|← Previous]] | [[tobit-00|TOC]] | [[tobit-03|Next →]]