Tobit 14

Tobit’s Last Words

1And Tobit came to the end of his thanksgiving. 2He was fifty-eight years old when he lost his sight, and after eight years he saw again. He gave alms, and he went on fearing the Lord God and giving him thanks. 3He grew very old. He called his son and his son’s sons, and said to him: “My child, take your sons. Look, I have grown old, and I am on the point of taking leave of life. 4Go away to Media, my child, for I am convinced of everything Jonah the prophet spoke about Nineveh, that it will be overthrown. In Media there will be more peace, for a while. And our kinsmen will be scattered over the earth, away from the good land; Jerusalem will be a wasteland, and the house of God in it will be burned down and will lie waste for a time. 5And God will again have mercy on them, and he will bring them back to the land, and they will build the house — not like the first one — until the appointed times of the age are filled up. And after that they will come back from their captivities and will build Jerusalem in honor, and the house of God in it will be built for all the generations of the age, a glorious building, just as the prophets said of it. 6And all the nations will turn to fear the Lord God truly; they will bury their idols out of sight, and all the nations will bless the Lord. 7And his people will give thanks to God, and the Lord will lift his people high; and all who love the Lord God in truth and righteousness will rejoice, showing mercy to our kinsmen. 8And now, my child, go away from Nineveh, for what the prophet Jonah spoke will surely come about. 9But you — keep the law and the ordinances. Be a lover of mercy and a righteous man, so that it may go well with you. And bury me properly, and your mother with me; and lodge in Nineveh no longer. 10My child, see what Haman did to Ahikar, who had raised him: how he led him out of the light into the darkness, and all that he repaid him with. Yet Ahikar was saved, while to that other man the recompense was paid back, and he was the one who went down into the darkness. Manasseh gave alms and was saved from the snare of death that Haman had set for him, but Haman fell into the snare and perished. 11And now, children, see what almsgiving does, and what righteousness rescues a man from.” And while he was still speaking, his soul failed him on his bed. He was a hundred and fifty-eight years old, and his son buried him with great honor. 12And when Anna died, he buried her with his father. Then Tobias went off with his wife and his sons to Ecbatana, to Raguel his father-in-law. 13He grew old in honor. He buried his wife’s parents with great honor, and he inherited their estate, and that of Tobit his father. 14And he died at Ecbatana in Media, a hundred and twenty-seven years old. 15He heard, before his death, of the ruin of Nineveh, which Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus carried off captive; and he rejoiced over Nineveh before he died.