Tobit 11: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Tobias leaves Raguel and Edna and travels toward Nineveh, and Raphael tells him to hurry ahead of his wife with the gall of the fish in his hand. Anna sees him coming, and Tobias rubs the gall on his father's eyes; the white film peels away and Tobit sees his son. Tobit goes out to the gate of Nineveh to meet his daughter-in-law and blesses her, Achiacharus and Nasbas come, and the wedding is kept seven days.

Claim by Claim

1. 11:1
   • After these things Tobias went on his way.
   • Tobias praised God for giving him a prosperous journey.
   • Tobias blessed Raguel and Edna his wife.
   • Tobias went on his way until they drew near to Nineveh.
2. 11:2
   • Raphael said to Tobias that Tobias knew how he had left his father.
3. 11:3
   • Raphael said they should hurry on ahead of Tobias's wife.
   • Raphael said they should prepare the house.
4. 11:4
   • Raphael told Tobias to take the gall of the fish in his hand.
   • They went on their way.
   • The dog went after them.
5. 11:5
   • Anna sat looking along the road for her son.
6. 11:6
   • Anna saw her son coming.
   • Anna said to his father that his son was coming.
   • Anna said the man who went with his son was coming.
7. 11:7
   • Raphael said he knew that Tobias's father would open his eyes.
8. 11:8
   • Raphael told Tobias to anoint his father's eyes with the gall.
   • Raphael said his father would be stung by it and would rub his eyes.
   • Raphael said the white films would fall away.
   • Raphael said his father would see Tobias.
9. 11:9
   • Anna ran forward.
   • Anna fell upon her son's neck.
   • Anna said to her son that she had seen him.
   • Anna said that from now on she was content to die.
   • Both of them wept.
10. 11:10
    • Tobit went out toward the door.
    • Tobit stumbled.
    • Tobit's son ran to him.
11. 11:11
    • Tobias took hold of his father.
    • Tobias smeared the gall on his father's eyes.
    • Tobias told his father to be of good courage.
12. 11:12
    • When Tobit's eyes began to smart, he rubbed them.
13. 11:13
    • The white films peeled away from the corners of Tobit's eyes.
    • Tobit saw his son.
    • Tobit fell upon his son's neck.
14. 11:14
    • Tobit wept.
    • Tobit said that God was blessed.
    • Tobit said God's name was blessed forever.
    • Tobit said all God's holy angels were blessed.
15. 11:15
    • Tobit said God had scourged him.
    • Tobit said God had taken pity on him.
    • Tobit said he saw his son Tobias.
    • Tobit's son went in rejoicing.
    • Tobit's son told his father the great things that had happened to him in Media.
16. 11:16
    • Tobit went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gate of Nineveh.
    • Tobit was rejoicing and praising God.
    • Those who saw him walking marvelled.
    • They marvelled because he had received his sight.
17. 11:17
    • Tobias gave thanks before them because God had shown mercy on him.
    • When he came near to Sara his daughter-in-law, he blessed her.
    • He said to her, Welcome, daughter.
    • He said God was blessed, who had brought her to them.
    • He said her father and her mother were blessed.
    • There was joy among all his kindred who were at Nineveh.
18. 11:18
    • Achiacharus came.
    • Nasbas his brother's son came.
19. 11:19
    • Tobias's wedding was kept seven days with great joy.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

11:1

Raguel and Edna are Sarah's parents. Tobias had married their daughter at their home in Ecbatana, in Media, and stayed there for the wedding feast. Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, is where Tobit's family were living as deportees from Israel; the road between the two ran several hundred miles. To "bless" people here means to speak a set form of blessing over them at parting, a formal farewell rather than a feeling of goodwill.

11:2

Raphael is an angel, but for the whole journey he has been in human form under the name Azarias, and neither Tobias nor his family knows who he is; the narrator uses his real name, the characters do not. "Brother" is a courteous address between fellow Israelites and kinsmen, not a claim to be a literal brother, though Azarias had earlier said he belonged to Tobit's kindred. The thing Tobias knows about how he left his father is that his father was blind.

11:4

The gall is the bile from the fish's gallbladder. In chapter 6 a large fish lunged at Tobias as he washed in the Tigris; on the angel's instructions he kept its heart, liver and gall, and was told the gall would heal white films on the eyes. Ancient physicians did in fact prescribe fish bile for eye complaints. The dog has been traveling with them since they set out, which is worth noticing because dogs elsewhere in the Bible are scavengers rather than companions.

11:5

Anna is Tobit's wife and Tobias's mother. Earlier in the book she has been watching the road daily, convinced her son is dead.

11:8

Tobit was blinded in chapter 2: droppings from sparrows fell into his open eyes as he slept in the courtyard, and white films formed over them. The "whiteness" of the King James is those films, a clouding or scarring of the surface of the eye.

11:9

"Seeing I have seen thee" reproduces a Greek and Hebrew way of doubling a verb for emphasis: I have truly seen you, with my own eyes. "From henceforth I am content to die" is a set idiom, not a wish to die: the one thing she was waiting for has now happened, so she can face death without grievance. Jacob says much the same on seeing Joseph alive in Genesis 46:30.

11:10

Tobit could not see, so he did not know where the door was. That is why he tripped.

11:11

"Strake of" is an old past tense of "strike" used here in the sense of striking a substance onto something, that is, smearing or daubing the gall across his father's eyes.

11:12

"Smart" is a verb in the King James, meaning to sting or to hurt sharply.

11:13

"Pilled" is an old spelling of "peeled".

11:14

Angels are God's messengers. Raphael is one of them.

11:15

"Scourged" means whipped, from the scourge, a whip used for punishment; it is used figuratively for hardship understood as chastisement. Media is the land of the Medes, roughly northwestern Iran, where Ecbatana and Rages lay and where Tobias had gone to collect a debt and found a wife.

11:16

The city gate was the ordinary public space of an ancient town: the place of business, legal cases, meetings and formal welcomes. Bringing the bride in at the gate means the whole town sees both her arrival and Tobit walking unaided.

11:17

The Greek manuscripts differ over the name here: some read Tobias, as the King James does, others Tobit, which fits better with the blessing of a daughter-in-law that follows. "Brethren" means the wider circle of fellow Israelites deported to Nineveh, kinsmen of the same tribe, not brothers in the narrow sense.

11:18

Achiacharus is Tobit's nephew, and in chapters 1 and 2 he is the high official who kept the accounts and the signet under the Assyrian kings and who supported Tobit after he went blind and lost his property. He is the hero of a famous ancient story, the Story of Ahikar, which circulated widely in the Near East and which the book of Tobit assumes its readers already know. Nasbas appears only here, and the manuscripts vary over both his name and exactly how he is related.

11:19

Seven days was the customary length of a wedding celebration in this world; compare Genesis 29:27 and Judges 14:12. Raguel had already held a feast for the couple back in Ecbatana, so this is a second celebration at the bridegroom's home. Some Greek manuscripts read fourteen days here rather than seven.