How does Tobias respond to danger, blindness and the kid Anna brings home?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Tobias continues the burials after neighbors remind him of a prior death sentence. The narrator compares his response to blindness with Job’s patience. The kid’s provenance remains uncertain: Tobias warns of possible theft, while Anna angrily reproaches him.

Chapter breakdown

On a festival of the Lord, Tobias had a good dinner prepared and told his son to bring someone of their tribe who feared God to eat with them. The son returned to report that an Israelite lay slain in the street. Tobias immediately left the table without eating, carried the body privately to his house, and planned a cautious burial after sunset. He ate bread in mourning and fear, recalling Amos’s words about feasts turning to mourning, and then buried the man. His neighbors recalled that he had recently escaped a death sentence for this work. Tobias nevertheless feared God more than the king, hid bodies in his house and buried them at midnight.

One day, tired after burial work, he lay down by a wall and slept. Hot dung from a swallow’s nest fell on his eyes and made him blind. The narrator says the Lord permitted this trial so that Tobias might give later generations an example of patience, as Job had done. Tobias did not complain against God but continued to give thanks. Relatives and kindred mocked him, as the account says kings had mocked Job, asking what had become of his hope and alms. Tobias rebuked them, saying that the children of saints looked for the life God would give those who did not change their faith. The edition’s separate note identifies Job’s “kings” as his three friends, described as princes in their respective territories.

Anna supported their livelihood by weaving. She received a young kid and brought it home. Hearing it bleat, Tobias warned that it might have been stolen and should be returned to its owners, saying that they must not eat or touch anything stolen. The passage does not establish that the kid was stolen or explain how Anna received it. Anna became angry, told him his hope had come to nothing and that his alms now appeared, and continued to reproach him.

The story inside

Context and action: Tobias continues the burials after neighbors remind him of a prior death sentence. Response: The narrator compares his response to blindness with Job’s patience. Recorded boundary: The kid’s provenance remains uncertain: Tobias warns of possible theft, while Anna angrily reproaches him.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Tobias continues the burials after neighbors remind him of a prior death sentence.
2
The narrator compares his response to blindness with Job’s patience.
3
The kid’s provenance remains uncertain: Tobias warns of possible theft, while Anna angrily reproaches him.

Test your recall

Why do the neighbors warn Tobias about continuing the burials?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 50623–50626
And when he had gone, returning he told him, that one of the children of Israel lay slain in the street. And he forthwith leaped up from his place at the table, and left his dinner, and came fasting to the body.
Lines 50650–50655
And as he was sleeping, hot dung out of a swallow’s nest fell upon his eyes, and he was made blind. 2:12. Now this trial the Lord therefore permitted to happen to him, that an example might be given to posterity of his patience, as also of holy Job.
Lines 50684–50689
And when her husband heard it bleating, he said: Take heed, lest perhaps it be stolen: restore ye it to its owners, for it is not lawful for us either to eat or to touch any thing that cometh by theft. 2:22. At these words his wife being angry answered: It is evident thy hope is come to nothing, and thy alms now appear.