Tobit

All his life, he says, he lived by the truth and did what was right. He gave a great deal to help his relatives and his own people, who went with him into the land of the Assyrians, to Nineveh.

When he was still young and living in his own country, the land of Israel, the whole tribe of his ancestor Naphtali broke away from Jerusalem. Out of all the tribes of Israel, Jerusalem was the city chosen as the place where every tribe should offer sacrifices. There the temple where the Most High lives had been made holy and built to last for all ages. All the tribes that broke away offered sacrifices to the heifer Baal, and so did the family of Naphtali.

Tobit alone kept going to Jerusalem for the feasts, as all Israel is commanded to do by a law that lasts forever. He took the first of his crops, the tenths of all he produced, and the first wool sheared from his sheep. He gave them at the altar to the priests, the sons of Aaron.

He gave a tenth of all he produced to the Levites, who served in Jerusalem. He sold a second tenth, and every year he went and spent the money in Jerusalem. He gave a third tenth to the people who ought to have it. His father’s mother, Deborah, had told him to do this, because his father had left him an orphan.

When he became a man, he married Anna, a woman from his own family, and they had a son, Tobias.

So the Most High made Enemessar think well of him, and Tobit became the man who bought goods for the king. He traveled into Media. At Rages in Media he left ten talents of silver, about 660 pounds, with Gabael, the brother of Gabrias, for safekeeping.

When Enemessar died, his son Sennacherib became king in his place. While Sennacherib was king, the roads were unsafe, and Tobit could no longer travel into Media.

While Enemessar was king, Tobit had given much to help his relatives. He gave his bread to the hungry and his clothes to those who had nothing to wear. If he saw that one of his people had died and been thrown out on the wall of Nineveh, he buried him.

King Sennacherib came fleeing back from Judea, and in his rage he killed many of them. Whenever he killed any of them, Tobit buried them in secret. The king had people look for the bodies, but no one could find them.

But one of the people of Nineveh went and told the king that Tobit was the one burying them, and Tobit hid. When he learned that they were looking for him to put him to death, he was afraid and slipped away.

Everything he owned was taken from him by force. He had nothing left except his wife Anna and his son Tobias.

Before fifty-five days had passed, two of Sennacherib’s sons killed their father and fled into the mountains of Ararat. Sennacherib’s son Sarchedonus became king in his place. He put Achiacharus, the son of Tobit’s brother Anael, in charge of all the accounts of his kingdom and all his affairs.

Achiacharus asked for Tobit, and Tobit came back to Nineveh. Achiacharus was the king’s cupbearer, the keeper of his seal, the manager of his household, and the man in charge of his accounts. Sarchedonus had made him second only to himself, and he was Tobit’s own nephew.

He saw that there was plenty of food, and he said to his son, “Go and find any poor man from among our people who remembers the Lord, and bring him here. I’ll wait for you.”

Then Tobias came back. “Father,” he said, “one of our people has been strangled, and his body has been thrown out in the marketplace.”

Before he had tasted anything, Tobit sprang up and took the body into a room and kept it there until the sun had set. Then he came back, washed himself, and ate his bread with a heavy heart.

So he wept. When the sun had set, he went and dug a grave and buried the man.

His neighbors laughed at him. “He’s not afraid of being put to death for this anymore,” they said, “and yet he ran away before. Look, he’s burying the dead again!”

That same night, after Tobit came back from burying the man, he slept by the wall of his courtyard. He was unclean from the burial, and his face was uncovered.

He didn’t know there were sparrows in the wall. His eyes were open, and the sparrows dropped warm droppings into them. White films grew over his eyes. He went to the doctors, but they didn’t help him. Achiacharus provided for him until Tobit went to Elymais.

When the goat came into the house, it began to bleat. “Where did this young goat come from?” Tobit asked her. “Is it stolen? Give it back to its owners. We’re not allowed to eat anything stolen.”

“It was a gift,” she said, “on top of my pay.”

Tobit didn’t believe her. He asked her to give it back to its owners, and he was ashamed of her.

But she answered him, “Where is your giving to the poor? Where are your good deeds? Look, you and all your deeds are known!”

She had been given in marriage to seven husbands, and Asmodaeus, the evil spirit, had killed them all before they had slept with her. “Don’t you know that you strangle your husbands?” the maidservants said to her. “You’ve had seven husbands already, and you haven’t carried the name of even one of them.

“Why do you whip us? If they’re dead, then follow them! We hope we never see a son or a daughter of yours!”

When she heard this, Sarah was so deeply grieved that she thought about taking her own life. Then she said, “I am my father’s only daughter. If I do this, it will bring shame on him, and I will send him down to the grave in his old age, full of sorrow.”

Then she prayed by the window. “Blessed are you, Lord my God, and blessed is your holy and honored name forever! May all your works praise you forever! And now, Lord, I have turned my eyes and my face toward you.

“Command that I be released from the earth, so that I no longer hear insults. You know, Lord, that I am pure and have never sinned with a man, and that I have never brought shame on my name or my father’s name in this land where I am a captive. I am my father’s only daughter. He has no child to be his heir. He has no close relative, or relative’s son, that I should save myself to marry. My seven husbands are dead already. Why should I live? But if you don’t want to kill me, then look on me kindly and have pity on me, and let me hear no more insults.”

Both their prayers were heard in the glorious presence of the great God. And Raphael was sent to heal them both. He was to peel the white films away from Tobit’s eyes. He was to give Sarah, Raguel’s daughter, to Tobias, Tobit’s son, as his wife. And he was to bind Asmodaeus, the evil spirit, because the right to marry her belonged to Tobias.

At that very moment Tobit came back and went into his house, and Sarah, Raguel’s daughter, came down from her upstairs room.

So he called him. “My child,” he said, “if I die, bury me. Don’t look down on your mother. Honor her all the days of your life. Do what pleases her, and don’t make her sad. Remember, my child, that she went through many dangers for you when you were in her womb. When she is dead, bury her next to me, in the same grave.

“My child, remember the Lord our God all your days. Don’t set your heart on sinning or breaking his commandments. Live rightly every day of your life, and don’t follow the ways of wrongdoing. If you do what is true, you will succeed in all you do, and so will everyone who does what is right.

“Give to the poor from what you have, and don’t be stingy when you give. Don’t turn your face away from any poor person, and God won’t turn his face away from you. Give as much as you are able: if you have plenty, give from your plenty. If you have little, don’t be afraid to give from that little. You are storing up a good treasure for yourself for the day when you are in need, because giving to the poor rescues you from death and won’t let you go into the darkness. Giving to the poor is a good gift in the sight of the Most High, for everyone who gives.”

He told Tobias to keep away from all sexual sin, and to marry a woman from his own ancestors’ family, not a foreigner from outside his father’s tribe, “because we are descended from the prophets.” Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their ancestors long ago, had all married women from among their own relatives. They were blessed in their children, and their descendants would inherit the land. Tobias was to love his relatives, and not to look down on the sons and daughters of his own people by refusing to marry one of them. Looking down on others brings ruin and much trouble, Tobit said, and laziness brings decay and great need, “because laziness is the mother of famine.”

“Don’t make anyone who works for you wait for his pay,” he said. “Give it to him right away. If you serve God, you will be rewarded. Be careful, my child, in everything you do, and be wise in the way you behave. Don’t do to anyone what you yourself hate. Don’t drink wine until you are drunk, and don’t let drunkenness go along with you on your way.”

He told Tobias to give his bread to the hungry and his clothes to those who had none, and to give to the poor from all he had, without being stingy. He was to pour out his bread at the burial of the righteous, but give nothing to sinners. He was to ask advice from everyone who was wise, and not to look down on any advice that would help him. And he was to bless the Lord his God at all times, and ask him to make his ways straight and to let all his paths and plans succeed. No nation has wisdom, Tobit said, but the Lord himself gives all good things, and he brings down whomever he wants, however he wants.

“And now, my child, remember what I have commanded you, and don’t let it be wiped from your mind. Now I will tell you about the ten talents of silver I left for safekeeping with Gabael, the son of Gabrias, at Rages in Media. Don’t be afraid, my child, that we have been made poor. You have much wealth if you fear God, turn away from all sin, and do what pleases him.”

Tobit gave him the handwritten note. “Look for a man who will go with you,” he said, “and I will pay him wages while I’m still alive. Then go and get the money.”

Tobias went to look for a man, and he found Raphael, who was an angel, though Tobias didn’t know it. “Can I go with you to Rages in Media?” he asked him. “Do you know those places well?”

“I will go with you,” the angel said. “I know the way well. I have stayed with our brother Gabael.”

“Wait for me,” said Tobias, “and I’ll tell my father.”

“Go,” said the angel, “and don’t be long.”

So Tobias went in and said to his father, “Look, I’ve found someone who will go with me.”

“Call him in to me,” said Tobit, “so that I can find out what tribe he is from, and whether he is a man you can trust to go with you.”

So Tobias called him. He came in, and they greeted each other. “Brother,” said Tobit, “what tribe and what family are you from? Tell me.”

“Are you looking for a tribe and a family,” the angel said, “or for a hired man to go with your son?”

“Brother,” said Tobit, “I want to know your family and your name.”

“I am Azarias, the son of Ananias the great, one of your own relatives.”

“Welcome, brother,” said Tobit. “Don’t be angry with me for wanting to know your tribe and your family. You are my brother, from an honest and good family. I knew Ananias and Jathan, the sons of Shemaiah the great, when we went to Jerusalem together to worship and offered our firstborn and the tenths of our harvest. They didn’t wander off when our relatives went astray. My brother, you come from a great family.

“But tell me, what wages should I give you? A drachma a day, and whatever you need, the same as my son? And if you both come back safe and sound, I will add something more to your wages.”

So they agreed, and he said to Tobias, “Get ready for the journey. May God give you success.” So his son got ready what he needed for the journey.

His father said to him, “Go with this man. God, who lives in heaven, will give you a good journey. May his angel go with you.” Then the two of them set off, and the young man’s dog went with them.

But his mother Anna wept. “Why have you sent our child away?” she said to Tobit. “Isn’t he the staff we lean on, as he comes and goes in front of us? Don’t be greedy for more and more money. Let it be like trash compared with our child. What the Lord has given us to live on is enough for us.”

“Don’t worry, my love,” Tobit told her. “He will come back safe and sound, and you will see him with your own eyes. A good angel will go with him. His journey will go well, and he will come back safe and sound.”

So she stopped weeping.

But the angel said to him, “Grab the fish!” So the young man grabbed it and hauled it up onto the land.

“Cut the fish open,” the angel told him. “Take out the heart, the liver and the bile, and keep them with you.”

The young man did as the angel told him. They roasted the fish and ate it, and then the two of them went on their way, until they came near Ecbatana.

“Brother Azarias,” the young man asked the angel, “what use are the heart and the liver and the bile of the fish?”

“As for the heart and the liver,” the angel answered, “if a demon or an evil spirit troubles anyone, we must burn them and make smoke in front of the man or the woman, and the trouble will flee. And the bile is good for rubbing on the eyes of a man who has white films on them, and he will be healed.”

When they came near Rages, the angel said to the young man, “Brother, today we will stay with Raguel. He is your relative. He has an only daughter named Sarah, and I will ask for her to be given to you as your wife. Her inheritance belongs to you, and you alone are from her family.

“The girl is beautiful and wise. Now listen to me. I will speak to her father, and when we come back from Rages we will celebrate the wedding. I know that under the law of Moses, Raguel may not give her in marriage to anyone else. If he did, he would deserve to die, because the right to take the inheritance belongs to you and to no one else.”

Then the young man said to the angel, “Brother Azarias, I have heard that this girl has been given in marriage to seven men, and that they all died in the bridal room. I am my father’s only son, and I am afraid that I will go in and die like the men before me. A demon loves her, and it harms no one except the men who come near her. I’m afraid I will die and send my father and mother down to the grave in sorrow over me. They have no other son to bury them.”

But the angel said to him, “Don’t you remember that your father commanded you to take a wife from your own family? Now listen to me, brother, because she will be your wife. Don’t worry about the demon. Tonight she will be given to you as your wife. When you go into the bridal room, take some of the ashes of incense, put some of the fish’s heart and liver on them, and make smoke with them.

“The demon will smell it and flee, and it will never come back again. And when you go to her, both of you get up and cry out to God, who is merciful. He will save you and have mercy on you. Don’t be afraid. She was made ready for you from the beginning. You will save her, and she will go with you. And I expect that you will have children with her.”

When Tobias heard this, he loved her, and his heart held fast to her.