Tobit · Catholic Public Domain Version
Tobit 2 Catholic Public Domain Version
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
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- No imprimatur; single translator.
1 In truth, after this, when there was a feast day of the Lord, and a good dinner had been prepared in the house of Tobit,
1 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.
2 he said to his son: “Go, and bring some others who fear God from our tribe to feast with us.”
2 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.”
3 And after he had gone, returning, he reported to him that one of the sons of Israel, with his throat cut, was lying in the street. And immediately, he leapt from his place reclining at table, left behind his dinner, and went forth with fasting to the body.
3 Then he came, and said, “Father, one of our race is strangled, and has been cast out in the marketplace.”
4 And taking it up, he carried it in secret to his house, so that, after the sun had set, he might bury him cautiously.
4 Before I had tasted anything, I sprang up, and took him up into a chamber until the sun had set.
5 And after he had hidden the body, he chewed his bread with mourning and fear,
5 Then I returned, washed myself, ate my bread in heaviness,
6 remembering the word that the Lord spoke through the prophet Amos: “Your feast days shall be turned into lamentation and mourning.”
6 and remembered the prophecy of Amos, as he said, “Your feasts will be turned into mourning, and all your mirth into lamentation.
7 Truly, when the sun had set, he went out, and he buried him.
7 So I wept: and when the sun had set, I went and dug a grave, and buried him.
8 Yet all his neighbors argued with him, saying: “Now, an order was given to execute you because of this matter, and you barely escaped a death sentence, and again you are burying the dead?”
8 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.”
9 But Tobit, fearing God more than the king, stole away the bodies of the slain and concealed them in his house, and in the middle of the night, he buried them.
9 The same night I returned from burying him, and slept by the wall of my courtyard, being polluted; and my face was uncovered.
10 But it happened one day, being tired from burying the dead, he came into his house, and he threw himself down next to the wall, and he slept.
10 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.
11 And, as he was sleeping, warm droppings from a swallow’s nest fell upon his eyes, and he was made blind.
11 My wife Anna wove cloth in the women’s chambers,
12 And so the Lord permitted this trial to befall him, in order that an example might be given to posterity of his patience, which is even like that of holy Job.
12 and sent the work back to the owners. They on their part paid her wages, and also gave her a kid.
13 For, even from his infancy, he had always feared God and kept his commandments, so he was not discouraged before God because of the scourge of blindness that had befallen him.
13 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.”
14 But he remained immoveable in the fear of God, giving thanks to God all the days of his life.
14 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.”
15 For just as kings have mocked blessed Job, so also his relatives and acquaintances ridiculed his life, saying:
15 Not in this translation
16 “Where is your hope, on behalf of which you gave alms and buried the dead?”
16 Not in this translation
17 In truth, Tobit corrected them, saying: “Do not speak in this way,
17 Not in this translation
18 for we are the sons of the holy ones, and we look forward to that life which God will give to those who never change in their faith before him.”
18 Not in this translation
19 In truth, his wife Anna went out to weaving work daily, and she brought back the provisions that she was able to obtain by the labor of her hands.
19 Not in this translation
20 Whereupon it happened that, having received a young goat, she brought it home.
20 Not in this translation
21 When her husband heard the sound of its bleating, he said, “Look, so that it might not be stolen, return it to its owners, for it is not lawful for us either to eat, or to touch, anything stolen.”
21 Not in this translation
22 At this, his wife, being angry, answered, “Clearly, your hope has become vanity, and the manner of your almsgiving has become apparent.”
22 Not in this translation
23 And with these and other similar such words, she reproached him.
23 Not in this translation
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… of theft; he did not like to hear the sound of any stolen thing in his house; and she, maintaining what she had done, reproached her husband; and when he said, "Restore it if it be stolen;" she answered insultingly, "Where are thy righteous deeds?" How great was her blindness who maintained the theft; and how clear a light he …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)