King James Version · Under Assyria
Tobit 6
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1And as they went on their journey, they came in the evening to the river Tigris, and they lodged there. 2And when the young man went down to wash himself, a fish leaped out of the river, and would have devoured him. 3Then said unto him, Take the fish. And the young man laid hold of the fish, and drew it to land. 4To whom said, Open the fish, and take and the liver and the gall, and put them up safely. 5So the young man did as commanded him; and when they had roasted the fish, they did eat it: then they both went on their way, till they drew near to . 6Then the young man said to , Brother , to what use is and the liver and the gall of the fish? 7And he said unto him, Touching and the liver, if a devil or an trouble any, we must make a smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and the party shall be no more vexed. 8As for the gall, it is good to anoint a man that hath whiteness in his eyes, and he shall be healed. 9And when they were come near to Rages, 10 said to the young man, Brother, to day we shall lodge with , who is thy cousin; he also hath one only daughter, named ; I will speak for her, that she may be given thee for a wife. 11For to thee doth the right of her appertain, seeing thou only art of her kindred. 12And the maid is fair and : now therefore hear me, and I will speak to her ; and when we return from Rages we will celebrate the marriage: for I know that cannot marry her to another according to of , but he shall be guilty of , because the right of doth rather appertain to thee than to any other. 13Then the young man answered , I have heard, brother that this maid hath been given to seven men, who all in the marriage chamber. 14And now I am the only son of , and I am afraid, lest if I go in unto her, I , as the other before: for a loveth her, which hurteth no body, but those which come unto her; wherefore I also fear lest I , and bring ’s and my mother’s life because of me to the with sorrow: for they have no other son to bury them. 15Then said unto him, Dost thou not remember the precepts which thy gave thee, that thou shouldest marry a wife of thine own kindred? wherefore hear me, O my brother; for she shall be given thee to wife; and make thou no reckoning of the ; for this same night shall she be given thee in marriage. 16And when thou shalt come into the marriage chamber, thou shalt take the of perfume, and shalt lay upon them some of and liver of the fish, and shalt make a smoke with it: 17And the devil shall smell it, and flee away, and never come again any more: but when thou shalt come to her, rise up both of you, and to which is merciful, who will have on you, and you: fear not, for she is appointed unto thee ; and thou shalt preserve her, and she shall go with thee. Moreover I suppose that she shall bear thee children. Now when had heard these things, he loved her, and was effectually joined to her.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.