My soul, bless thou our Lord, for he hath delivered Jerusalem his city.  I shall be blessed if there be left of my seed for to see the clearness of Jerusalem.  The gates of Jerusalem shall be edified of sapphire and emerald, and all the circuit of his walls of precious stone; all the streets thereof shall be paved with white stone and clean; and Alleluia shall be sung by the ways thereof.  Blessed be the Lord that hath exalted it that it may be his kingdom in secula seculorum, Amen.  And thus Tobit finished these words.  And Tobit lived after he had received his sight forty-two years, and saw the sons of his nephews, that is, the sons of the sons of his son young Tobias.  And when he had lived one hundred and two years he died, and was honorably buried in the city of Nineveh.

He was fifty-six years old when he lost his sight, and when he was sixty years old he received his sight again.  The residue of his life was in joy, and with good profit of the dread of God he departed in peace.  In the hour of his death he called to him Tobias his son, and seven of his young sons, his nephews, and said to them:  The destruction of Nineveh is nigh, the word of God shall not pass, and our brethren that be disperpled [scattered] from the land of Israel shall return thither again.  All the land thereof shall be fulfilled with desert, and the house that is burnt therein shall be re-edified, and thither shall return all people dreading God.  And Gentiles shall leave their idols and shall come in Jerusalem and shall dwell, therein, and all the kings of the earth shall joy in her, worshipping the king of Israel.  Hear ye therefore, my sons, me your father, serve ye God in truth and seek ye that ye do that may be pleasing to him, and command ye to your sons that they do righteousness and alms, that they may remember God and bless him in all time in truth and in all their virtue.  Now therefore, my sons, hear me and dwell ye no longer here, but whensoever your mother shall die, bury her by me and from then forthon dress ye your steps that ye go hence, I see well that wickedness shall make an end of it.  It was so then after the death of his mother, Tobias went from Nineveh with his wife and his sons, and the sons of his sons, and returned unto his wife’s father and mother, whom they found in good health and good age, and took the cure and charge of them, and were with them unto their death, and closed their eyes.  And Tobias received all the heritage of the house of Raguel and saw the sons of his sons unto the fifth generation.  And when he had complished ninety-nine years he died in the dread of God, and with joy they buried him.  All his cognation [kindred] and all his generation [offspring] abode in good life and in holy conversation, and in such wise as they were acceptable as well to God as to men, and to all dwelling on the earth.

HERE BEGINNETH THE STORY OF JUDITH

Which is read the last Sunday of October