The God Who Meets Us in the Fragments: Suffering and Comfort in Tobit 2
Tobit witnesses injustice, buries the dead, loses his sight, and is misunderstood by his own wife—yet in every fragment, God's presence remains.
When I arrived home and my wife Anna and my son Tobi′as were restored to me, at the feast of Pentecost, which is the sacred festival of the seven weeks, a good dinner was prepared for me and I sat down to eat. Upon seeing the abundance of food I said to my son, “Go and bring whatever poor man of our brethren you may find who is mindful of the Lord, and I will wait for you.” But he came back and said, “Father, one of our people has been strangled and thrown into the market place.” So before I tasted anything I sprang up and removed the body to a place of shelter until sunset. And when I returned I washed myself and ate my food in sorrow. Then I remembered the prophecy of Amos, how he said, “Your feasts shall be turned into mourning, and all your festivities into lamentation.” And I wept. Tobit Becomes Blind When the sun had set I went and dug a grave and buried the body. And my neighbors laughed at me and said, “He is no longer afraid that he will be put to death for doing this; he once ran away, and here he is burying the dead again!” On the same night I returned from burying him, and because I was defiled I slept by the wall of the courtyard, and my face was uncovered. I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall and their fresh droppings fell into my open eyes and white films formed on my eyes. I went to physicians, but they did not help me. Ahi′kar, however, took care of me until he went to Elyma′is. Tobit’s Wife Earns Their Livelihood Then my wife Anna earned money at women’s work. She used to send the product to the owners. Once when they paid her wages, they also gave her a kid; and when she returned to me it began to bleat. So I said to her, “Where did you get the kid? It is not stolen, is it? Return it to the owners; for it is not right to eat what is stolen.” And she said, “It was given to me as a gift in addition to my wages.” But I did not believe her, and told her to return it to the owners; and I blushed for her. Then she replied to me, “Where are your charities and your righteous deeds? You seem to know everything!”
Tobit 2:1-14 recounts the compounding grief of a devout man within a single twenty-four-hour cycle: the shock of a murdered stranger, the physical cost of ritual burial, impurity that drives him to sleep outdoors, the blow to his eyes, and the quiet sting of his wife's accusation—all woven into a single feast day.