And after these things, on a festival day of the Lord, Tobias prepared a great feast in his house.

And he said to his son, "Go, and bring some of our tribe, such as fear God, that they may eat with us."

So he went forth, and returned, and told him that one of the children of Israel lay slain in the marketplace. When Tobias heard this, he rose up in haste from his place, and left his supper, and went to the dead body, being yet fasting.

And he took him up, and carried him secretly to his house, that he might bury him circumspectly after the sun was set.

And after he had hidden the body, he did eat his bread with mourning and trembling.

Then he remembered the word which the Lord spake by Amos the prophet, saying, "Your feast days shall be turned into mourning, and all your mirth into lamentation."

And when the sun was set, he went and buried him.

But all his kinsfolk blamed him, saying, "For this cause wast thou commanded to be put to death, and barely escapedst thou the sentence of death, yet dost thou bury the dead again?"

But Tobias, fearing God more than the king, ceased not to steal away the bodies of the slain, and to hide them in his house, and to bury them at midnight.

Now it happened on a certain day, being wearied with burying the dead, that he came into his house and cast himself upon the wall, and slept.

And as he slept, the sparrows' dung dropped out of a swallow's nest into his eyes, and he became blind.

Now the Lord suffered this trial to fall upon him, that an example of his patience might be given to posterity, such as was that of righteous Job.

For since he had been a man fearing God from his infancy, and keeping His commandments, he did not murmur against God because of the affliction of his blindness.

But he continued firm in the fear of God, giving thanks to Him all the days of his life.

And as the holy Job was reproached by kings, so was he by his kinsfolk and relations, who mocked at his conversation, saying,

"Where is thy hope, for which thou didst give alms, and bury the dead?"

But Tobias rebuked them, saying, "Speak not so!"

For we are the children of saints, and we look for that life which God will give to those who never turn their faith from Him.

And Anna his wife went daily to spinning, and brought in what she could get with her hands to provide for their living.

And it came to pass that she received a kid, and brought it home.

And when her husband heard the bleating of the kid, he said, "Look, lest perhaps it be stolen; restore it to its owners, for it is not lawful for us to eat anything that is stolen, nor to touch it."

But his wife answered him being greatly offended, "It is manifest now that thy hope and thine alms are in vain." And with these words, and suchlike, she upbraided him.