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1So when Esarhaddon became king, I returned home to live with my wife, Anna, and my son, Tobiah. It was Pentecost, the Festival of Harvest, and a fine dinner was prepared for me.[#2:1 Or Festival of Weeks, a festival held 50 days after Passover.]
2When I saw all the food laid out on the table, I said to Tobiah, “My dear son, go and find a poor, sincere worshiper from among the Israelite captives here in Nineveh. Bring him home to share this dinner, and we will wait until you come back.”
3Tobiah had hardly left when he returned. “Father!” he exclaimed.
“What is it, my son?” I replied.
Tobiah said, “One of our people has been strangled, and his body was dumped in the marketplace!”
4I hurried from the table without touching my food and found the body. I carried it back from the public square and put it in an outbuilding until I could bury it after sunset.
5Then I returned to my own house, washed myself, and ate my meal in sorrow.[#2:5 According to the law of Moses, an Israelite was made unclean by touching a corpse.]
6As I ate, I thought of the prophecy of Amos against Bethel:
“I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning,
and your songs of joy will be turned to weeping.”
Then I wept.
7At sunset I dug a grave and buried the dead man.
8But my neighbors ridiculed me: “Will he never learn? He had to run away the last time he did such a thing, and here he is burying the dead again!”
9That same night I washed myself and went to bed along the inside wall of the courtyard. Because it was a hot night, I left my face uncovered.
10I did not know there were sparrows on the wall until their droppings fell into my eyes, causing cataracts. I went to the doctors to be healed, but the more they treated me with ointments, the worse my vision became. Finally, I was totally blind. I remained blind for four years. During this time my relatives grieved for me, and my nephew Ahikar took care of me for two years until he went to Elymais in Persia.[#2:10 Greek white films.]
11My wife, Anna, supported us by making cloth.[#2:11 Greek by doing women’s work.]
12Each time she delivered to her employers what she had made, they paid her. On a certain day in late winter, she finished a piece of work and took it to her employers. When they paid her in full for the cloth, they also gave her a young goat from their herd.[#2:12 Greek On the seventh of Dystrus. This month of the Macedonian calendar corresponds to the 12th month of the Hebrew lunar calendar. This day occurs in March.]
13As soon as she returned home, the goat began to bleat. I called out to her, “Where did you get that goat? You didn’t steal it, did you? Give it back to its owners, for we cannot eat stolen food.”
14She replied, “It was given to me as a bonus over and above what I earned.” But I did not believe her. I became angry and told her to take the goat back. She answered, “And you’re supposed to be a man of charity and righteous deeds! Now your true character is coming out!”