1 My name is Tobit, and this book tells my story. I belong to the Asiel clan of the tribe of Naphtali, and my ancestors include my father Tobiel, my grandfather Hananiel, and then Aduel, Gabael, and Raphael.
2-3 My hometown is Thisbe in Galilee. Thisbe is south of the town of Kedesh in Naphtali, and it is northwest of Hazor and north of Phogor. But when Shalmaneser was king of Assyria, I was one of many Jews who were captured by the Assyrian army and taken to Nineveh in Assyria.All my life, I have been honest and done what is right. And even after we were brought here to Nineveh, I still gave help to my relatives and other Jews, whenever they were in need.
4 When I was a young man in Israel, my tribe had already rejected the descendants of David as their kings. In fact, the people of Naphtali never went to Jerusalem to worship, even though that is where God's sacred temple had been built. The temple will be God's home forever, and so God said the tribes of Israel must go there to offer sacrifices to him.
5 But my relatives and everyone else in my tribe went to the town of Dan and offered sacrifices to the idol that King Jeroboam had made in the shape of a calf. They also worshiped on hilltops all over Galilee.
6 I was the only one who went to Jerusalem for the festivals, just as God's unchanging command says to do. I would hurry to Jerusalem with my sacrifices and offerings, whether they were the first part of the harvest, the first-born of a sheep, the tenth of my livestock, or the first wool from my sheep.