Tobit Buries the Dead

1 ¹⁶ While Shalmaneser was still emperor, I took good care of my own people whenever they were in need. ¹⁷ If they were hungry, I shared my food with them; if they needed clothes, I gave them some of my own. Whenever I saw that the dead body of one of my people had been thrown outside the city wall, I gave it a decent burial. ¹⁸ One day Senacherib cursed God, the King if Heaven; God punished him, and Sennacherib had to retreat from Judah. On his way back to Media he was so furious that he killed many Israelites. But I secretly removed the bodies and buried them; and when Sennacherib later searched for the bodies, he could not find them. ¹⁹ Then someone from Nineveh told the emperor that I was the one who had been burying his victims. A soon as I realized that the emperor knew all about me and that my life was in danger, I became frightened. So I ran away and hid. ²⁰ Everything I owned was seized and put in the royal treasury. My wife Anna and my son Tobias were all I had left.