During a feast of Pentecost, Tobit sends Tobias to find a poor Israelite to share their meal. Instead, Tobias finds a murdered countryman in the street. Tobit buries the body, is mocked by neighbors, and then goes blind when sparrow droppings fall into his eyes while he sleeps in the open.
The chapter hinges on a cruel irony: Tobit's most faithful act — burying the dead at personal risk — directly leads to his blindness. This raises the book's central theological question: why do the righteous suffer? The blindness also sets up the physical healing that will mirror the spiritual resolution of the story.
The cause of Tobit's blindness (sparrow droppings — 'hirundinum calido stercore') is strikingly mundane for a narrative with such theological weight. Jerome renders it matter-of-factly. Anna's accusation at the end of the chapter echoes Job's wife, and the Latin carries real domestic bitterness.
The Pentecost feast setting connects to Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:10. Anna's challenge to Tobit ('Where are your alms now?') parallels Job's wife saying 'Curse God and die' (Job 2:9). The righteous sufferer theme pervades the Wisdom literature.
Post haec vero, cum esset dies festus Domini et factum esset prandium bonum in domo Tobiae,
After these things, on a feast day of the Lord, a fine meal was prepared in Tobit's house,
This is Pentecost (Shavuot) — one of the three pilgrimage festivals, here observed in exile.
dixit filio suo: Vade et adduc aliquos de tribu nostra timentes Deum, ut epulentur nobiscum.
he said to his son: 'Go and bring some of our tribesmen who fear God, so they may feast with us.'
Cumque abiisset, reversus nuntiavit ei unum ex filiis Israhel iugulatum iacere in platea.
When he had gone and returned, he reported that one of the children of Israel lay slaughtered in the street.
The word implies a throat-cutting — violent, deliberate execution, not natural death.
Statimque exiliens de accubitu suo, relinquens prandium, ieiunus pervenit ad corpus,
Immediately he leaped up from his place at table, left the meal, and came fasting to the body,
tollensque illud portavit ad domum suam occulte, ut dum sol occubuisset, caute sepeliret eum.
and taking it up, he carried it secretly to his house, so that when the sun had set he might bury it cautiously.
Cumque occultasset corpus, manducavit panem cum luctu et tremore,
When he had hidden the body, he ate bread with mourning and trembling,
memorans illum sermonem quem dixit Dominus per Amos prophetam: Dies festi vestri convertentur in lamentationem et luctum.
remembering the word the Lord spoke through the prophet Amos: 'Your feast days shall be turned into lamentation and mourning.'
Cum vero sol occubuisset, abiit et sepelivit eum.
When the sun had set, he went out and buried him.
Arguebant autem eum omnes proximi eius dicentes: Iam huius rei causa interfici iussus es, et vix effugisti mortis imperium, et iterum sepelis mortuos?
But all his neighbors rebuked him, saying: 'You were already ordered killed for this very thing, and you barely escaped the death sentence — and you are burying the dead again?'
Sed Tobias plus timens Deum quam regem, rapiebat corpora occisorum et occultabat in domo sua et mediis noctibus sepeliebat ea.
But Tobit, fearing God more than the king, seized the bodies of the slain, hid them in his house, and buried them at midnight.
A classic formulation of the hierarchy of obedience — divine law supersedes royal authority.
Contigit autem ut quadam die fatigatus a sepultura veniens domum, iactasset se iuxta parietem et obdormisset,
It happened one day that, exhausted from burying, he came home, threw himself down beside a wall, and fell asleep,
et ex nido hirundinum calido stercore inciderent super oculos eius fieretque caecus.
and from a swallow's nest warm droppings fell into his eyes, and he became blind.
Blindness in Scripture is richly symbolic — but Tobit's blindness is presented as physical and accidental, making its eventual cure all the more clearly an act of God.
Hanc autem temptationem ideo permisit Dominus evenire illi, ut posteris daretur exemplum patientiae eius, sicut et sancti Iob.
But the Lord permitted this trial to come upon him so that an example of his patience might be given to future generations, just as with holy Job.
The Latin 'temptatio' covers both temptation and testing — here clearly meaning a divine test of endurance, not enticement to sin.
Not passive waiting but active endurance — the same virtue celebrated in James 5:11 regarding Job.
Nam cum ab infantia sua semper Deum timuerit et mandata eius custodierit, non est contristatus contra Deum quod plaga caecitatis evenerit ei,
For since from his childhood he had always feared God and kept his commandments, he was not grieved against God because the plague of blindness had come upon him,
sed inmobilis in Dei timore permansit agens gratias Deo omnibus diebus vitae suae.
but remained unmoved in the fear of God, giving thanks to God all the days of his life.
A striking word — Tobit is unshakable, rock-like in his faithfulness despite incomprehensible suffering.
Nam sicut beato Iob insultabant reges, ita isti parentes et cognati eius inridebant vitam eius dicentes:
For just as kings mocked blessed Job, so his parents and relatives ridiculed his way of life, saying:
Ubi est spes tua pro qua eleemosynas et sepulturas faciebas?
'Where is your hope now, for which you gave alms and buried the dead?'
From Greek 'eleemosyne' — almsgiving becomes one of Tobit's central theological themes, later influential in Catholic moral theology.
Tobias vero increpabat eos dicens: Nolite ita loqui,
But Tobit rebuked them, saying: 'Do not speak this way,
quoniam filii sanctorum sumus et vitam illam expectamus quam Deus daturus est his qui fidem suam numquam mutant ab eo.
for we are children of the saints, and we look for that life which God will give to those who never change their faithfulness to him.'
The 'saints' are the patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Tobit claims covenant lineage as the ground of his hope.
An eschatological reference — life beyond present suffering, a concept more developed here than in most Hebrew Bible texts.
Anna vero uxor eius ibat ad textrinum opus cotidie et de labore manuum suarum victum quem consequi poterat deferebat.
Now Anna his wife went out daily to weaving work, and from the labor of her hands she brought home whatever earnings she could obtain.
Unde factum est ut haedum caprarum accipiens detulisset domi.
It happened that she received a young goat and brought it home.
Cuius cum vocem balantis vir eius audisset, dixit: Videte ne forte furtivus sit; reddite eum dominis suis, quia non licet nobis aut edere ex furto aliquid aut contingere.
When her husband heard it bleating, he said: 'See that it is not stolen! Return it to its owners, for it is not lawful for us to eat or touch anything gotten by theft.'
Ad haec uxor eius irata respondit: Manifeste vana facta est spes tua et eleemosynae tuae modo paruerunt.
At this his wife replied angrily: 'Clearly your hope has come to nothing, and now your alms have shown what they are worth.'
The word 'spes' recurs as a keyword throughout Tobit — the hope of the righteous is questioned, mocked, and ultimately vindicated.
Atque his et aliis huiuscemodi verbis exprobrabat ei.
With these and other words like them she reproached him.