Burying the Dead

Nineveh, 721 B.C.

The people in the marketplace look away as the two men approach. The younger man, the son, walks ahead pointing the way but then slows up as they both approach the body slumped with his face against the wall. The father approaches his fallen kinsman quickly, as though perhaps there is still hope, but bows his head in sadness as he sees the purpling bruises upon his neck. The father stoops and takes the mans head, delicately closing mouth and eyes and whispering:

"Give rest, O Lord, to the souls of Your servants, where there is no pain, no sorrow, no grieving, but life everlasting."

Turning to his son he says, "pick him up."

Both father and son labour under the weight of the fallen man as they leave the market place, the people parting in waves so as not to touch the dead man.

"Will this man Tobit never learn," they mutter. "Once before he was hunted down for execution because of this very thing: burying Israelites, the enemies of the king, so that he could not take satisfaction at their murder. And now after escaping, he is here doing the very same thing!"

But Tobit gripped harder the clothes of his kinsman and with his son returned home. They laid out the body in one of the rooms, once again Tobit whispering his prayers for the man:

"Only Creator who out of the depths of wisdom govern all things, give rest to the souls of Your servant, for he placed his hope in You, our Author and Maker and God."


Returning to his own quarters, Tobit washed and then ate with sorrow. He spent the evening in prayer and mourning for that man who was left to rot on the streets. Then at sunset, with his beard dripping tears, he went out into the dark to bury the dead.

- Taken from the Book of Tobit Ch 1 and 2