17 I gave a portion of my food to the hungry and clothes to the naked. Whenever I saw that the corpse of anyone from my nation had been flung outside the wall of Nineveh, I buried it.
18 I also buried anyone whom Sennacherib murdered after fleeing home from Judea, at the time when the king of heaven had punished him for all his insulting actions. In his rage Sennacherib killed many Israelites. However, I would take their bodies and bury them secretly. Sennacherib looked for them, but he didn’t find them.
19 A native Ninevite went to the king and told him that I was the one burying the bodies. So I went into hiding. When I found out that I was being hunted down to be put to death, I fled from the city in fear.
20 All my possessions were seized, and everything of mine became royal property except for my wife Anna and my son Tobias.
21 Within forty days Sennacherib was killed by two of his sons, who escaped to the mountains of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon became king in his place. He hired Ahikar, my brother Hanael’s son, to be in charge of all the financial accounts of his kingdom and all the king’s treasury records.
22 Ahikar petitioned the king on my behalf, and I returned to Nineveh. Ahikar had been the chief officer, the keeper of the ring with the royal seal, the auditor of accounts, and the keeper of financial records under Assyria’s King Sennacherib. And Esarhaddon promoted him to be second in charge after himself. Ahikar was my nephew and one of my family.