1. When I returned home I was reunited with my wife Anna and my son Tobias. At the Harvest Festival, which is also called the Festival of Weeks, I sat down to a delicious meal.
2. When I saw how much food there was on the table, I said to Tobias, “My son, go out and find some fellow-Jew who is living in poverty here in exile, someone who takes God's commands seriously. Bring him back with you, so that he can share this festival meal with us. I won't start eating until you come back.”
3. So Tobias went out to look for such a person. But he quickly returned, shouting, “Father! Father!”“Yes, what is it?” I asked.“One of our people has just been murdered! Someone strangled him and threw his body into the market-place.”
4. I jumped up and left the table without even touching my food. I removed the body from the street and carried it to a little shed, where I left it until sunset, when I could bury it.
5. Then I returned home and washed, so as to purify myself. In deep sorrow I ate my dinner.
6. I was reminded of what the prophet Amos had said to the people of Bethel:“Your festivals will be turned into funerals,and your glad songs will become cries of grief.”I began to weep.
7. After sunset I went out, dug a grave, and buried the man.