Tobit - The Old Testament

¹ The end of the hymns of Tobit. Tobit died when he was a hundred and twelve years old and received an honourable burial in Nineveh.

² He had been sixty-two when he went blind; and after his cure, he lived in comfort, practising almsgiving and continually praising God and extolling his greatness.

³ When he was at the point of death he summoned his son Tobias and gave him these instructions,

⁴ 'My son, take your children and hurry away to Media, since I believe the word of God pronounced over Nineveh by Nahum. Everything will come true, everything happen that the emissaries of God, the prophets of Israel, have predicted against Assyria and Nineveh; not one of their words will prove empty. It will all take place in due time. you will be safer in Media than in Assyria or in Babylonia. Since I for my part know and believe that everything God has said will come true; so it will be, and not a word of the prophecies will fail. 'A census will be taken of our brothers living in the land of Israel and they will be exiled far from their own fair country. The entire territory of Israel will become a desert, and Samaria and Jerusalem will become a desert, and the house of God for a time, will be laid wasted and burnt.

⁵ Then once again God will take pity on them and bring them back to the land of Israel. They will rebuild his house, although it will be less beautiful than the first, until the time is fulfilled. But after this, all will return from captivity and rebuild Jerusalem in all her glory, and the house of God will be rebuilt within her as the prophets of Israel have foretold.

⁶ And all the people of the whole earth will be converted and will reverence God with all sincerity. All will renounce their false gods who have led them astray into error,

⁷ and will bless the God of ages in uprightness. All the Israelites spared in those days will remember God in sincerity of heart. They will come and gather in Jerusalem and thereafter dwell securely in the land of Abraham, which will be theirs. And those wherusalem in all her glory, and the house of God will be rebuilt within her as the prophets of Israel have foretold.

⁸ 'And now, my children, I lay this duty on you; serve God sincerely, and do what is pleasing to him. And lay on your children the obligation to behave uprightly, to give alms, to keep God in mind and to bless his name always, sincerely and with all their might.

⁹ 'So then, my son, leave Nineveh, do not stay here.

¹⁰ As soon as you have buried your mother next to me, go the same day, whenever it may be, and do not linger in this country where I see wickedness and perfidy unashamedly triumphant. Consider, my child, all the things done by Nadab to his foster-father Ahikar. Was not Ahikar forced to go underground, though still a living man? But God mad e the criminal pay for his outrage before his victim's eyes, since Ahikar came back to the light of day, while Nadab went down to everlasting darkness in punishment for plotting against Ahikar's life. Because of his good works Ahikar escaped the deadly snare Nadab had laid for him, and Nadab fell into it to his own ruin.

¹¹ So, my children, you see what comes of almsgiving, and what wickedness leads to, I mean to death. But now breath fails me.' They laid him back on his bed; he died and was buried with honour.

¹² When his mother died, Tobias buried her beside his father. Then he left for Media with his wife and children. He lived in Ecbatana with Raguel, his father-in-law.

¹³ He treated the ageing parents of his wife with every care and respect, and later buried them in Ecbatana in Media. Tobias inherited the patrimony of Raguel besides that of his father Tobit.

¹⁴ Much honoured, he lived to the age of a hundred and seventeen years.

¹⁵ Before he died he witnessed the ruin of Nineveh. He saw the Ninevites taken prisoner and deported to Media by Cyaxares king of Media. He blessed God for everything he inflicted on the Ninevites and Assyrians. Before his death he had the opportunity of rejoicing over the fate of Nineveh, and he blessed the Lord God for ever and ever. Amen.