HOLY BIBLE: Tobit 4 (original) (raw)

3 καὶ καλέσας αὐτὸν εἶπεν παιδίον ἐὰν ἀποθάνω θάψον με καὶ μὴ ὑπερίδῃς τὴν μητέρα σου τίμα αὐτὴν πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς σου καὶ ποίει τὸ ἀρεστὸν αὐτῇ καὶ μὴ λυπήσῃς αὐτήν 4 μνήσθητι παιδίον ὅτι πολλοὺς κινδύνους ἑόρακεν ἐπὶ σοὶ ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ ὅταν ἀποθάνῃ θάψον αὐτὴν πα{R'} ἐμοὶ ἐν ἑνὶ τάφῳ 5 πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας παιδίον κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν μνημόνευε καὶ μὴ θελήσῃς ἁμαρτάνειν καὶ παραβῆναι τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ δικαιοσύνην ποίει πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς σου καὶ μὴ πορευθῇς ταῖς ὁδοῖς τῆς ἀδικίας 6 διότι ποιοῦντός σου τὴν ἀλήθειαν εὐοδίαι ἔσονται ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις σου 7 καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ποιοῦσι τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἐκ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων σοι ποίει ἐλεημοσύνην καὶ μὴ φθονεσάτω σου ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐν τῷ ποιεῖν σε ἐλεημοσύνην μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἀπὸ παντὸς πτωχοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ σοῦ οὐ μὴ ἀποστραφῇ τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ θεοῦ 8 ὡς σοὶ ὑπάρχει κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος ποίησον ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐλεημοσύνην ἐὰν ὀλίγον σοι ὑπάρχῃ κατὰ τὸ ὀλίγον μὴ φοβοῦ ποιεῖν ἐλεημοσύνην 9 θέμα γὰρ ἀγαθὸν θησαυρίζεις σεαυτῷ εἰς ἡμέραν ἀνάγκης 10 διότι ἐλεημοσύνη ἐκ θανάτου ῥύεται καὶ οὐκ ἐᾷ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸ σκότος 11 δῶρον γὰρ ἀγαθόν ἐστιν ἐλεημοσύνη πᾶσι τοῖς ποιοῦσιν αὐτὴν ἐνώπιον τοῦ ὑψίστου 12 πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ παιδίον ἀπὸ πάσης πορνείας καὶ γυναῖκα πρῶτον λαβὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ σπέρματος τῶν πατέρων σου μὴ λάβῃς γυναῖκα ἀλλοτρίαν ἣ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς τοῦ πατρός σου διότι υἱοὶ προφητῶν ἐσμεν Νωε Αβρααμ Ισαακ Ιακωβ οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος μνήσθητι παιδίον ὅτι οὗτοι πάντες ἔλαβον γυναῖκας ἐκ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτῶν καὶ εὐλογήθησαν ἐν τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτῶν κληρονομήσει γῆν

3 When God takes my soul to himself, give this body of mine burial, and give thy mother her due[1] while her life lasts; 4 do not forget what hazard she underwent to bear thee in her womb; 5 and when she, too, has lived out her allotted span of years, bury her at my side. 6 And do thou, while thou hast life, think ever upon God, nor lend thyself to any sinful design, nor leave the commandments of the Lord our God unfulfilled. 7 Use thy wealth in giving of alms; never turn thy back on any man who is in need, and the Lord, in thy own need, will have eyes for thee. 8 Shew to others what kindness thy means allow, 9 giving much, if much is thine, if thou hast little, cheerfully sharing that little. 10 To do this is but to lay up a store against the day of distress; 11 alms-deeds were ever a sovereign way of escape from guilt and death, a bar against the soul’s passage into darkness; 12 none has less to fear when he stands before the most high God than he who does them.

3 Cum acceperit Deus animam meam, corpus meum sepeli: et honorem habebis matri tuæ omnibus diebus vitæ ejus: 4 memor enim esse debes, quæ et quanta pericula passa sit propter te in utero suo. 5 Cum autem et ipsa compleverit tempus vitæ suæ, sepelias eam circa me. 6 Omnibus autem diebus vitæ tuæ in mente habeto Deum: et cave ne aliquando peccato consentias, et prætermittas præcepta Domini Dei nostri. 7 Ex substantia tua fac eleemosynam, et noli avertere faciem tuam ab ullo paupere: ita enim fiet ut nec a te avertatur facies Domini. 8 Quomodo potueris, ita esto misericors. 9 Si multum tibi fuerit, abundanter tribue: si exiguum tibi fuerit, etiam exiguum libenter impertiri stude. 10 Præmium enim bonum tibi thesaurizas in die necessitatis: 11 quoniam eleemosyna ab omni peccato et a morte liberat, et non patietur animam ire in tenebras. 12 Fiducia magna erit coram summo Deo, eleemosyna omnibus facientibus eam.

[1] Literally, ‘honour’, but this was, according to St Jerome, a regular idiom among the Jews.

[2] The meaning of this verse is very obscure, and some think there is a corruption in the text. The versions have, not ‘bestow’, but ‘pour out’; it was a common heathen practice to pour libations of wine over the tombs of the dead, but the mention of bread would in that case be confusing, and the Septuagint Greek has simply ‘Pour out thy loaves’ without any mention of wine. It is possible there is some reference to providing entertainment for the mourners at a pauper funeral, but the allusion seems far-fetched. For the custom of providing the mourners at a funeral with food, cf.Jer.16.8

[3] The other versions differ greatly in the account they give of Tobias’ advice to his son, the Aramaic text being nearest to the Vulgate.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd