Tobit, 2

1. When I returned to my house, my wife Anna and my son Tobias were given back to me. At the feast of Pentecost, the sacred feast of the Seven Weeks, they prepared a good meal for me and I sat down to eat.

2. I saw the many dishes and said to my son: "Go and bring as many as you can find of our relatives who are in need and who remember the Lord. I will wait here for them."

3. When Tobias returned, he said: "Father, one of ours has been strangled and thrown into the public square."

4. Before I ate anything I hurried out and carried this man into the house and waited till sunset to bury him.

5. When I returned home I washed myself and ate my food in sorrow.

6. I remembered the prophecy which Amos uttered against Bethel: "Your feasts will be turned into mourning. All your songs will be turned into lamentations,"

7. and I wept. After sunset I went out and, after I had dug a trench, I buried the man.

8. My neighbors mocked me, saying: "He no longer fears to be put to death for doing that; he had to flee but look he is again burying the dead."

9. That same night, after I had buried the body, I returned home. I washed myself and went out into the courtyard to sleep against the wall; my face was uncovered because of the heat.

10. I did not see that there were sparrows on the wall of the courtyard and, as my eyes were open, the hot droppings from the sparrows fell into my eyes and formed a white film on my eyes. I went to find doctors to attend to me for medical treatment but the more ointments they smeared on my eyes, the more blind I became because of the film. Finally I became totally blind. I suffered from blindness for four years. All my brothers were burdened because of me. Ahikar kept me for two years before he departed for Elymiade.

11. My wife Anna worked hard at a woman's task, weaving.

12. On the seventh day of the month of March she cut the cloth and delivered it to her employers. They paid her wages and gave her, over and above, a young goat for food.

13. When she returned home the kid began to cry. I said to her, "Where does the little kid come from? Did you steal it? Return it to its owners for we are not allowed to eat anything that is stolen."

14. But she said, "It is a gift which has been given to me in addition to my wages." "I don't believe it. I tell you to return it to its owners." I was ashamed of her. She replied, "What about your own almsgiving and your good deeds? I have to put up with all this from you."