Tobit 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Tobit ends his song of praise, and the account tells how old he was when he lost his sight and when it came back. In old age he calls his son and his son's sons and tells them to leave Nineveh for Media, since he believes Jonas's word that Nineveh will be overthrown; he speaks of Jerusalem laid waste, of God bringing the people back, of the house of God rebuilt, and of all nations turning to fear the Lord. He tells his son to keep the law, to bury him and his mother, and to remember Aman, Achiacharus, and Manasses, and then he dies and is buried. Tobias later moves to Ecbatane, grows old there, and hears of the destruction of Nineve before he dies.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • Tobit finished praising God.
2. 14:2
   • Tobit was fifty-eight years old when he lost his sight.
   • His sight was restored to him after eight years.
   • He gave alms.
   • He increased in the fear of the Lord God.
   • He praised the Lord God.
3. 14:3
   • When Tobit was very aged he called his son.
   • He called the sons of his son.
   • Tobit said to his son, My son, take thy children.
   • Tobit said he was aged.
   • Tobit said he was ready to depart out of this life.
4. 14:4
   • Tobit told his son to go into Media.
   • Tobit said he surely believed the things Jonas the prophet spoke of Nineve.
   • Tobit said Jonas spoke that Nineve shall be overthrown.
   • Tobit said that for a time peace shall rather be in Media.
   • Tobit said that their brethren shall lie scattered in the earth away from that good land.
   • Tobit said Jerusalem shall be desolate.
   • Tobit said the house of God in Jerusalem shall be burned.
   • Tobit said Jerusalem shall be desolate for a time.
5. 14:5
   • Tobit said God will again have mercy on them.
   • Tobit said God will bring them again into the land.
   • Tobit said they shall build a temple there.
   • Tobit said the temple will not be like the first one.
   • Tobit said this will last until the time of that age is fulfilled.
   • Tobit said that afterward they shall return from all places of their captivity.
   • Tobit said they shall build up Jerusalem gloriously.
   • Tobit said the house of God shall be built in Jerusalem for ever with a glorious building.
   • Tobit said this is as the prophets have spoken of it.
6. 14:6
   • Tobit said all nations shall turn and fear the Lord God truly.
   • Tobit said all nations shall bury their idols.
7. 14:7
   • Tobit said all nations shall praise the Lord.
   • Tobit said his people shall confess God.
   • Tobit said the Lord shall exalt his people.
   • Tobit said all those who love the Lord God in truth and justice shall rejoice.
   • Tobit said those who love the Lord will show mercy to their brethren.
8. 14:8
   • Tobit told his son to depart out of Nineve.
   • Tobit said the things the prophet Jonas spoke shall surely come to pass.
9. 14:9
   • Tobit told his son to keep the law and the commandments.
   • Tobit told his son to show himself merciful and just.
   • Tobit said this was so that it may go well with his son.
10. 14:10
    • Tobit told his son to bury him decently.
    • Tobit told his son to bury his mother with him.
    • Tobit told his son to stay no longer at Nineve.
    • Tobit told his son to remember how Aman handled Achiacharus.
    • Achiacharus had brought Aman up.
    • Aman brought Achiacharus out of light into darkness.
    • Aman repaid Achiacharus for what he had done.
    • Achiacharus was saved.
    • The other man received his reward.
    • The other man went down into darkness.
    • Manasses gave alms.
    • Manasses escaped the snares of death which had been set for him.
    • Aman fell into the snare.
    • Aman perished.
11. 14:11
    • Tobit told his son to consider what alms does.
    • Tobit told his son to consider how righteousness delivers.
    • When Tobit had said these things he gave up the ghost in the bed.
    • Tobit was a hundred and fifty-eight years old when he died.
    • His son buried him honourably.
12. 14:12
    • Anna his mother died.
    • Tobias buried Anna with his father.
    • Tobias departed with his wife and children to Ecbatane.
    • Tobias went to Raguel his father in law.
13. 14:13
    • Tobias became old with honour at Ecbatane.
    • Tobias buried his father in law and mother in law honourably.
    • Tobias inherited their substance.
    • Tobias inherited the substance of his father Tobit.
14. 14:14
    • Tobias died at Ecbatane in Media.
    • Tobias was a hundred and twenty-seven years old when he died.
15. 14:15
    • Before he died Tobias heard of the destruction of Nineve.
    • Nineve was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus.
    • Before his death Tobias rejoiced over Nineve.

Words Worth Explaining

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

14:1

The praising referred to is the long hymn Tobit sings in chapter 13; this sentence closes it and turns the book to his last words and death.

14:2

"Alms" in the King James means money, food, or other practical help given to the poor, which Jewish teaching of this period treated as a central religious duty, not optional charity. "The fear of the Lord" means reverent awe and obedience toward God, not fright.

14:3

"The sons of his son" are Tobit's grandsons, the children of Tobias; some Greek copies specify six of them. Tobit speaks to the whole group but addresses Tobias directly, which is why the verse shifts from plural to "said to him."

14:4

Media was the region east of Assyria in what is now northwestern Iran. "Jonas" is the Greek form of Jonah, the prophet sent to warn Nineveh; "Nineve" is Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, on the Tigris near modern Mosul. The book is set among Israelites deported to Assyria, so "that good land" means the homeland of Israel they were taken from. "The house of God" is the temple in Jerusalem.

14:5

The first temple was Solomon's, destroyed when Babylon took Jerusalem in 587 BC. The rebuilt temple of the returned exiles was famously less impressive than the original, which is the point of "not like to the first." "Until the time of that age be fulfilled" marks a set period whose end is God's to fix; the passage does not say how long it is.

14:6

Burying an idol was a way of disposing of a god image permanently: it was buried rather than smashed or sold, so it could not be recovered or reused. The gesture means abandoning the god, not merely storing it away.

14:7

In the King James, "confess" often means to acknowledge openly or to give thanks and praise, as it does here. It does not mean confessing sins.

14:9

"The law and the commandments" means the Law of Moses, the body of instruction in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, which governed worship, food, purity, and dealings with other people.

14:10

This refers to a story well known in the ancient Near East, the tale of Ahikar, a wise official at the Assyrian court. Ahikar (here "Achiacharus") raised his nephew as his own son, and the nephew repaid him by framing him on a false charge so that he was condemned to death. Ahikar was hidden alive in an underground chamber, which is what "out of light he brought him into darkness" describes, and was later cleared and restored, while the nephew died. In Greek copies of Tobit the nephew's name appears variously, and the King James gives it as "Aman," the same spelling it uses for Haman in Esther. "Manasses" in the second half of the verse is a name no other version of the Ahikar story carries, and the Greek copies differ here; it appears to be a scribe's substitution. "He went down into darkness" means he died.

14:11

"Gave up the ghost" is older English for died; "ghost" here means breath or spirit, with no suggestion of a haunting. The one who does the burying is Tobias, though the King James does not name him. Ancient copies of Tobit disagree about Tobit's age at death, some giving one hundred and twelve rather than a hundred and fifty-eight.

14:12

Anna is Tobit's wife and Tobias's mother. Ecbatane is Ecbatana, the chief city of Media, on the site of modern Hamadan in Iran. Raguel is the father of Sarah, Tobias's wife.

14:13

When people died, their house, land, and money went to their family. That is what "received all that they owned" means.

14:14

Copies of the book differ on this number as well, some giving one hundred and seventeen years.

14:15

"Nabuchodonosor" is the Greek form of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and "Assuerus" is Ahasuerus, the name the Greek Bible uses for the Persian king called Xerxes. Nineveh actually fell in 612 BC to a combined force of Babylonians and Medes, under Nabopolassar of Babylon, who was Nebuchadnezzar's father, and Cyaxares of Media. Greek copies of Tobit name the conquerors differently from one another, and the King James follows one of those traditions.