Tobit 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Tobias agrees to go for the money but says he does not know the man who holds it, so his father tells him to hire a guide. He finds Raphael, who is an angel, though Tobias does not know it, and Raphael says he knows the road and has stayed with Gabael. Tobit questions the man about his family, learns he is Azarias son of Ananias, settles his pay, and sends the two off with the dog. Anna weeps over her son's leaving, and Tobit tells her he will come back safe.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • Tobias answered his father.
   • Tobias said he would do everything his father had commanded him.
2. 5:2
   • Tobias asked how he could receive the money.
   • Tobias said he did not know the man.
3. 5:3
   • Tobit gave Tobias the handwritten note.
   • Tobit told Tobias to seek a man who would travel with him.
   • Tobit said he would give that man wages while Tobit was still alive.
   • Tobit told Tobias to go and receive the money.
4. 5:4
   • Tobias went to seek a man.
   • Tobias found Raphael.
   • Raphael was an angel.
5. 5:5
   • Tobias did not know Raphael was an angel.
   • Tobias asked Raphael whether he could go with him to Rages.
   • The King James names the destination as Rages, without adding that it is in Media.
   • Tobias asked whether Raphael knew those places well.
6. 5:6
   • The angel said he would go with Tobias.
   • The angel said he knew the way well.
   • The angel said he had lodged with their brother Gabael.
7. 5:7
   • Tobias told the angel to wait for him.
   • Tobias said he would tell his father.
8. 5:8
   • The angel told Tobias to go and not delay.
   • Tobias went in to his father.
   • Tobias said he had found someone who would go with him.
   • Tobit said to call the man to him.
   • Tobit said he wanted to know what tribe the man was of.
   • Tobit said he wanted to know whether the man was trustworthy to go with Tobias.
9. 5:9
   • Tobias called the man.
   • The man came in.
   • They greeted one another.
10. 5:10
    • Tobit called the man brother.
    • Tobit asked the man to tell him what tribe and family he was of.
11. 5:11
    • The man asked whether Tobit was seeking a tribe and family or a hired man to go with his son.
    • Tobit said he wanted to know the man's kindred and name.
    • Tobit called the man brother.
12. 5:12
    • The man said his name was Azarias.
    • The man said he was the son of Ananias the great.
    • The man said he was of Tobit's brethren.
13. 5:13
    • Tobit welcomed the man as a brother.
    • Tobit told him not to be angry that he had enquired about his tribe and family.
    • Tobit said the man was his brother.
    • Tobit said the man was of an honest and good stock.
    • Tobit said he knew Ananias and Jonathas, sons of the great Samaias.
    • The King James names the second son Jonathas.
    • Tobit said they had gone together to Jerusalem to worship.
    • Tobit said they offered the firstborn and the tenths of the fruits.
    • Tobit said those men were not led astray by the error of their brethren.
    • Tobit said the man was of a good stock.
14. 5:14
    • Tobit asked what wages he should give the man.
    • Tobit proposed a drachm a day.
    • Tobit proposed the things necessary for him, as for his own son.
15. 5:15
    • Tobit said that if they returned safe he would add something to the wages.
16. 5:16
    • They were both well pleased with the arrangement.
    • Tobit told Tobias to prepare himself for the journey.
    • Tobit wished them a good journey from God.
    • Tobias prepared all things for the journey.
    • Tobit told Tobias to go with the man.
    • Tobit said God dwells in heaven.
    • Tobit asked that God prosper their journey.
    • Tobit asked that the angel of God keep them company.
    • The two of them went forth.
    • The young man's dog went with them.
17. 5:17
    • Anna, the mother of Tobias, wept.
    • Anna asked Tobit why he had sent away their son.
    • Anna asked whether their son was not the staff of their hand in going in and out before them.
18. 5:18
    • Anna said not to be greedy to add money to money.
    • Anna said the money should be counted as refuse compared with their child.
19. 5:19
    • Anna said that what the Lord had given them to live on was enough for them.
20. 5:20
    • Tobit told Anna to take no care.
    • Tobit called Anna his sister.
    • Tobit said their son would return in safety.
    • Tobit said Anna's eyes would see him.
21. 5:21
    • Tobit said the good angel would keep their son company.
    • Tobit said the son's journey would be prosperous.
    • Tobit said the son would return safe.
22. 5:22
    • Anna stopped weeping.

Words Worth Explaining

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

5:1

Tobit is the father, Tobias the son. The two names are forms of the same Hebrew name, Tobiah, meaning "the Lord is good," which is why they look so alike on the page.

5:2

The money is a deposit. Years earlier Tobit had left ten talents of silver in trust with a kinsman named Gabael, in Media, far to the east (1:14), and he has just told Tobias about it. Tobias has never met the man and has no way to identify himself to him.

5:3

"The handwriting" is the King James word for a handwritten document, here the signed bond or receipt recording the deposit. Producing the document was how a claim on money left in trust was proved; in 9:5 the silver is handed over against it.

5:4

Raphael is a Hebrew name meaning "God heals." In Jewish writing of this period he is one of a small group of angels who have names; he identifies himself in 12:15. The narrator tells the reader who this traveler is long before anyone in the story finds out.

5:5

Rages was a city in Media, in what is now northern Iran near Tehran. From Nineveh the journey ran many hundreds of miles east and would take weeks on foot.

5:6

"Brother" here does not mean a sibling. Among Israelites living as deportees it meant a member of the same people, and often of the same extended family. The word carries that sense throughout this chapter, and "our brother Gabael" means a kinsman of the same stock.

5:8

The twelve tribes were the descent groups traced from the sons of Jacob; Tobit belongs to Naphtali (1:1). Asking a stranger's tribe and family was the ordinary way an exile checked who someone was: it established whether he shared the same law and loyalties, and whether his people were known to yours.

5:9

In 1611 English "saluted" simply meant greeted, with the usual embrace and words of blessing. It has nothing to do with a military salute.

5:12

Azarias is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Azariah, "the Lord has helped"; Ananias is Hananiah, "the Lord has been gracious." The angel supplies a plausible name and pedigree rather than his own.

5:13

Several things are packed in here. The names are Greek forms of Hebrew ones: Samaias is Shemaiah, Jonathas is Jonathan. "The firstborn, and the tenths of the fruits" are the dues the law required of an Israelite: the first male born to the flocks and herds, and a tenth part of each harvest, carried to the temple at Jerusalem. "They were not seduced with the error of our brethren" points back to 1:4-5, where the northern tribes are said to have sacrificed at the calf shrine in Dan instead of going up to Jerusalem; Tobit is saying this family kept to the Jerusalem worship as his own did. "Stock" means ancestry or family line.

5:14

A drachma was a Greek silver coin, roughly a day's pay for an ordinary laborer, so the offer is standard wages. "Things necessary" means food, clothing and travel costs on top of the wage, at the same rate as a son of the household would have them.

5:16

The dog is an odd detail by the standards of Israelite writing, where dogs are usually scavengers and the word is an insult. Here the animal simply travels with them as a companion, a touch that fits the Greek-speaking world this book was written in, and it turns up again on the road home in 11:4.

5:17

"The staff of our hand" is an idiom: the walking stick an old or infirm person leans on. "Going in and out before us" is a Hebrew way of describing the whole round of daily activity, all a person's comings and goings. Tobit is blind (2:10), so his wife's image is also literal: their son is the one who walks ahead and guides them.

5:18

"Refuse" here is the noun, not the verb: rubbish, sweepings, what is thrown out. Anna is saying the money is trash by comparison with their son.

5:20

Husbands address their wives as "sister" in this book and in other Jewish writing of the period. It is a term of affection between spouses, and it also fits Tobit's situation, since he married a woman of his own kindred (1:9).

5:21

Tobit does not know that the man with his son is an angel. He is saying he hopes God sends one along to guard him.