tobit

Tobias and Sarah leave Media for Nineveh

10 
Meanwhile, each and every day Tobit would keep count of how many days Tobias would need in order to travel and return. And when that number of days was past and his son hadn’t arrived, he said, “Perhaps he was kept there, or perhaps Gabael died, and no one gave him the money.” So he began to worry.

Moreover, his wife Anna was saying, “My child has perished and no longer remains among the living.” She began to cry and mourn for her son, saying, “What misery is mine, my child, light of my eyes, because I let you go away!”

Tobit would reply, “Be quiet! Don’t get so upset, my sister! He’s fine! Surely something has distracted them there. Moreover, the man traveling with him is trustworthy and one of our relatives. Don’t grieve about him, my sister. He’ll get here soon.”

“You be quiet!” she would say. “Don’t lie to me! My son has perished.”

Daily she hurried out to scan the road on which her son had gone and she wouldn’t be persuaded by anyone. When the sun set, she would come inside, mourning and weeping the whole night without sleeping.

When the fourteen days of the wedding feast were finished, which Raguel had sworn to celebrate for his daughter, Tobias came to him and said, “Send me off, for I know that my father and my mother don’t believe they will ever see me again. So now, father, I ask you to send me off to go to my father. I have already let you know how I left him.”

Raguel said to Tobias, “Stay, my child. Stay with me. I’ll send messengers to Tobit your father, and they will report to him about you.”

Tobias replied, “Absolutely not! I ask that you allow me to return to my father.”

10 So Raguel arose and gave to Tobias his wife Sarah and half of all his possessions, including servants and female servants, oxen and sheep, donkeys and camels, clothes, money, and furnishings. 11 He sent them away safely and said farewell to Tobias. “Good-bye, my son. Have a safe trip! May the Lord of heaven cause you and your wife Sarah to prosper! May I see your children before I die!”

12 Raguel said to his daughter Sarah, “Go to your father-in-law, since from now on they are your parents, just as if they had conceived you. Go in peace, my daughter! May I hear a good report about you as long as I’m alive!” Having said good-bye, he allowed them to go.

Then Edna said to Tobias, “My child and dearly loved brother, may the Lord bring you back, and may I see your children while I’m still alive and those of my daughter before I die! In the Lord’s presence I entrust my daughter into your care. Don’t ever be a cause of grief to her, not as long as you live. Go in peace, my child! From now on I’m your mother, and Sarah is your sister. May all our ways prosper together all the days of our lives!” Then she kissed them both and sent them safely[a] on their way.

13 So Tobias parted from Raguel in good health, rejoicing and praising the Lord of heaven and earth, the king of all, for making his journey so successful. Raphael said to Tobias, “You enjoyed this success that you might honor them all the days of their lives.”[b]

Footnotes

  1. Tobit 10:12 Or in good health
  2. Tobit 10:13 Gk uncertain; OL and he blessed Raguel and Anna (!) and said,I have been enjoined by the Lord to honor you all the days of your lives.