Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Aramaic and Hebrew where a Qumran copy can be read (4Q196–4Q200), and otherwise the longer Greek of Codex Sinaiticus. The shorter Greek in Swete is not the base. Gaps in Sinaiticus are not filled from a later edition.
1The book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, son of Hananiel, son of Aduel, son of Gabael, son of Raphael, son of Raguel, of the line of Asiel, from the tribe of Naphtali.
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- Process
Tobit was drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. No published English Bible, commentary, or study note was open while this book was drafted. The wording source was the ancient-language witnesses named in the notes. A lexicon or grammar may be used for a source word. Greek, Syriac, and Latin, when they appear, witness the source wording. They are not models for the English.
- Translation
This book does not print Yahweh. In Codex Sinaiticus the speakers say God, the Lord, the Most High, and the King of heaven. The Hebrew fragments of 4Q200 that were read for this draft say God and Lord. They do not show the four consonants YHWH in a place this draft could confirm. The name is not supplied. Where a book does use YHWH, the vowels in “Yahweh” are a later convention. See the glossary.
- Text
The continuous Greek witness for this draft is Codex Sinaiticus, the longer form of the book. The open Greek edition this project names for the Greek Old Testament is Swete, and Swete prints the shorter Tobit of Vaticanus. The shorter text is not the base. It is cited only when a difference matters. Qumran preserves earlier Aramaic (4Q196–4Q199) and Hebrew (4Q200), all of them fragmentary. Where those fragments can actually be read, their wording is preferred and the Greek is footnoted. Letters an editor restored in brackets are not treated as words on the leather. No reading is invented to fill a gap.
- Translation
Gabael, Raphael, and Raguel in this genealogy are ancestors. Later in the book those names, or names close to them, belong to other people. The English does not merge them.
2He was taken captive in the days of Enemessar, king of the Assyrians, from Thisbe, which is to the right of Kydios of Naphtali, in upper Galilee, above Asher, behind the west, on the left of Phogor.
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- Text
These place names are the spellings in Sinaiticus. Several of them are unstable, and this draft does not replace them with a reconstructed map. The Aramaic copies are not continuous enough at this verse to correct the list.
3I, Tobit, walked in ways of truth and in right acts all the days of my life. I gave many gifts of mercy to my kindred and to my people who went with me into captivity, into the country of the Assyrians, to Nineveh.
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- Translation
“Gifts of mercy” is eleemosyne. See the glossary.
4When I was in my own country, in the land of Israel, and when I was young, the whole tribe of Naphtali, my father’s tribe, broke away from the house of David my father and from Jerusalem. That is the city chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, the place where all the tribes of Israel were to sacrifice. The temple where God dwells was set apart and built there, for all the generations of the age.
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- Translation
“David my father” means the ancestor, not Tobit’s own father. The Greek says “my father” either way.
5All my kindred and the tribes that revolted with them sacrificed to Baal the heifer. And the house of Naphtali, my father’s house, used to sacrifice to the calf that Jeroboam, king of Israel, made in Dan, on all the mountains of Galilee.
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- Text
Sinaiticus crowds two descriptions together and repeats “all my kindred.” Both objects of sacrifice are printed: Baal the heifer, and Jeroboam’s calf. The repeated phrase is not printed twice.
6I alone used to go often to Jerusalem for the festivals, as it is written for all Israel in a standing command. I took the first fruits, the firstborn, the tenths of the cattle, and the first shearings of the sheep, and I hurried to Jerusalem.
7I would give them to the priests, the sons of Aaron, at the altar, and I would go and use them in Jerusalem every year.
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- Text
The Greek of this verse is compressed and includes a word that does not settle into a clear phrase (“of years” beside the altar). The English gives the actions that are clear: giving to the priests, and spending the gifts in Jerusalem each year. The unclear word is not guessed.
8The third year I would give them to the orphans, the widows, and the proselytes who had joined the sons of Israel. I brought them in and gave them, and we ate them according to the command set down about them in the law of Moses, and according to the commands Debbora, the mother of Hananiel our father, had given. My father had left me an orphan when he died.
9When I became a man I took a wife from the line of our family, and by her I had a son, and I named him Tobias.
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- Translation
The son is Tobias in the Greek (Tobias, Tobiah in sound). A Hebrew copy, 4Q200, writes Tobiah (טוביה) and writes the father’s name as Tobi (טובי). “Tobit” and “Tobias” are printed from the Greek of this chapter. The Hebrew spellings are used where a verse is taken from that Hebrew copy.
10After I was taken captive to the Assyrians, and when I was taken captive to Nineveh, all my kindred and the people of my clan ate the food of the nations.
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- Text
Sinaiticus repeats “I went to Nineveh.” The repetition is a slip and is printed once.
11I kept myself from eating the food of the nations.
12And when I remembered my God with my whole self,
13the Most High gave me favor and a presence before Enemessar, and I used to buy for him everything he needed.
14I used to go to Media and buy for him there, until he died. I deposited with Gabael, the brother of Gabri, in the country of Media, ten talents of silver in bags.
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- Text
Sinaiticus writes the name twice in a row, in two spellings, before settling on Gabael the brother of Gabri. One name is printed. A talent is a large weight of silver. No modern price is added.
15When Enemessar died and Sennacherib his son became king in his place, the roads through Media were closed by revolt, and I could no longer go to Media.
16In the days of Enemessar I gave many gifts of mercy to my kindred, the people of my clan.
17I gave my bread to the hungry and clothes to the naked. If I saw one of my people dead and thrown behind the wall of Nineveh, I buried him.
18And if Sennacherib the king killed anyone when he came back fleeing from Judea, in the days of the judgment the King of Heaven carried out on him for the blasphemies he had spoken, I buried them. He killed many of the sons of Israel in his rage. I used to steal their bodies and bury them. Sennacherib looked for them and did not find them.
19One of the people of Nineveh went and told the king about me, that I was burying them. I hid. When I realized that the king knew about me and that I was being hunted to be killed, I was afraid and I fled.
20Everything I had was seized. Nothing was left to me that was not taken into the royal store, except Anna my wife and Tobias my son.
21Forty days had not passed before his two sons killed him and fled to the mountains of Ararat. Esarhaddon his son became king after him. He put Ahikar, son of Anael, my brother’s son, over all the accounts of his kingdom, and Ahikar had authority over the whole administration.
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- Text
Sinaiticus spells Ahikar three ways in this verse, and it repeats “fled.” One spelling is printed, and the flight is printed once. The forty days are in the Greek. A damaged letter sits beside the number, and it is not turned into a second figure.
22Then Ahikar spoke for me, and I came back down to Nineveh. Ahikar had been chief cupbearer, keeper of the signet, administrator, and accountant under Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, and Esarhaddon appointed him a second time. He was my cousin, from my own family.