him grace to be in the favor of Salmanazar the king which gave to him power to go where he would.  Having liberty to do what he would, he went then to all them in captivity and gave to them warnings of health.  When he came on a time in Rages, city of the Jews, he had such gifts as he had been honored with of the king, ten besants of silver.  And when he saw one Gabael being needy which was of his tribe, he lent him the said weight of silver upon his obligation.  Long time after this when Salmanazar the king was dead, Sennacherib his son reigned for him, and hated, and loved not, the children of Israel.  And Tobit went unto all his kindred and comforted them, and divided to every each of them as he might of his faculties and goods.

He fed the hungry and gave to the naked clothes, and diligently he buried the dead men and them that were slain.  After this when Sennacherib returned, fleeing the plague from the Jewry, that God had sent him for his blasphemy, and he, being wroth, slew many of the children of Israel, and Tobit always buried the bodies of them, which was told to the king, which commanded to slay him, and took away all his substance.  Tobit then with his wife and his son hid him and fled away all naked, for many loved him well.  After this, forty-five days, the sons of the king slew the king, and then returned Tobit unto his house, and all his faculties and goods were restored to him again.  After this on a high festival day of our Lord when that Tobit had a good dinner in his house, he said to his son:  Go and fetch to us some of our tribe dreading God, that they may come and eat with us.  And he went forth and anon he returned telling to his father that one of the children of Israel was slain and lay dead in the street.  And anon he leapt out of his house, leaving his meat, and fasting came to the, body, took it and bare it in to his house privily, that he might secretly bury it when the sun went down.  And when he had hid the corpse, he ate his meat with wailing and dread, remembering that word that our Lord said by Amos the prophet:  The day of your feast shall be turned into lamentation and wailing.  And when the sun was gone down he went and buried him.  All his neighbors reproved and chid him, saying for this cause they were commanded to be slain, and unnethe [hardly] thou escapedst the commandment of death, and yet thou buriest dead men.  But Tobit, more dreading God than the king, took up the bodies of dead men and hid them in his house, and at midnight he buried them.

It happed on a day after this that when he was weary of burying dead men, he came home and laid him down by a wall and slept.  And he became blind.  This temptation suffered God to fall to him, that it should be an example to them that shall come after him of his patience, like as it was of holy Job.  For from his infancy he dreaded ever God and kept his precepts and was not grudging against God for his blindness, but he abode immovable in the dread of God, giving