Tobit 6: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

As they travel, the two men camp by the river Tigris, and a fish leaps out at the young man; the angel tells him to catch it and keep the heart, liver, and gall, and then explains what each part is used for. Near Rages the angel says they will stay that day with Raguel, whose only daughter Sarah should be given to the young man as his wife, since he alone is of her family. The young man answers that he is afraid, because seven men have already died with her in the marriage room. The angel tells him not to worry about the evil spirit, tells him to burn part of the fish's heart and liver to drive the spirit away, and tells him to pray with her, and when the young man hears this he loves her.

Claim by Claim

1. 6:1
   • They continued on their journey.
   • In the evening they came to the river Tigris.
   • They lodged at the river Tigris.
2. 6:2
   • The young man went down to wash himself.
   • A fish leaped out of the river.
   • The fish would have devoured the young man.
3. 6:3
   • The angel told the young man to take the fish.
   • The young man laid hold of the fish.
   • The young man drew the fish to land.
4. 6:4
   • The angel told him to open the fish.
   • The angel told him to take the heart, the liver, and the gall.
   • The angel told him to put them up safely.
5. 6:5
   • The young man did as the angel commanded him.
   • They roasted the fish.
   • They ate the fish.
   • They both went on their way.
   • They drew near to Ecbatane.
6. 6:6
   • The young man addressed the angel as brother Azarias.
   • The young man asked what use the heart, the liver, and the gall of the fish were.
7. 6:7
   • The angel answered him.
   • The angel said that concerning the heart and the liver, if a devil or an evil spirit troubles anyone, a smoke must be made of them before the man or the woman.
   • The angel said the afflicted party would then be vexed no more.
8. 6:8
   • The angel said the gall is good for anointing a man who has whiteness in his eyes.
   • The angel said such a man shall be healed.
9. 6:9
   • They came near to Rages.
10. 6:10
    • The angel spoke to the young man.
    • The angel addressed him as brother.
    • The angel said they would lodge that day with Raguel.
    • The angel said Raguel is the young man's cousin.
    • The angel said Raguel has one only daughter.
    • The angel said the daughter is named Sara.
    • The angel said he would speak for her so that she might be given to the young man as a wife.
11. 6:11
    • The angel said the right to her belongs to the young man.
    • The angel said the young man alone is of her kindred.
12. 6:12
    • The angel said the maid is fair.
    • The angel said the maid is wise.
    • The angel told the young man to hear him.
    • The angel said he would speak to her father.
    • The angel said that when they return from Rages they will celebrate the marriage.
    • The angel said he knows Raguel cannot marry her to another according to the law of Moses.
    • The angel said that if Raguel did so he would be guilty of death.
    • The angel said the right of inheritance belongs to the young man rather than to any other.
13. 6:13
    • The young man answered the angel.
    • The young man addressed him as brother Azarias.
    • The young man said he had heard that this maid had been given to seven men.
    • The young man said all seven died in the marriage chamber.
14. 6:14
    • The young man said he is the only son of his father.
    • The young man said he is afraid.
    • The young man said he feared that if he goes in to her he will die as the others before him.
    • The young man said a wicked spirit loves her.
    • The young man said the spirit hurts nobody except those who come to her.
    • The young man said he fears he will die.
    • The young man said he fears bringing his father's and his mother's life to the grave with sorrow because of him.
    • The young man said his parents have no other son to bury them.
15. 6:15
    • The angel spoke to him.
    • The angel asked whether he remembered the precepts his father gave him.
    • The angel said those precepts were that he should marry a wife of his own kindred.
    • The angel told him to hear him.
    • The angel addressed him as his brother.
    • The angel said she shall be given to him as wife.
    • The angel told him to make no reckoning of the evil spirit.
    • The angel said she shall be given to him in marriage that very night.
16. 6:16
    • The angel said that when he comes into the marriage chamber he shall take the ashes of perfume.
    • The angel said he shall lay upon the ashes some of the heart and liver of the fish.
    • The angel said he shall make a smoke with it.
17. 6:17
    • The angel said the devil shall smell it.
    • The angel said the devil shall flee away.
    • The angel said the devil shall never come again any more.
    • The angel said that when he comes to her, both of them shall rise up.
    • The angel said they shall pray to God, who is merciful.
    • The angel said God will have pity on them.
    • The angel said God will save them.
    • The angel told him not to fear.
    • The angel said she is appointed to him from the beginning.
    • The angel said he shall preserve her.
    • The angel said she shall go with him.
    • The angel said he supposes she shall bear him children.
    • Tobias heard these things.
    • Tobias loved her.
    • Tobias's heart was effectually joined to her.

Words Worth Explaining

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

6:1

The Tigris is the great river of Assyria. Tobias has set out from Nineveh, near modern Mosul in northern Iraq, and is traveling east toward Media, in what is now northwestern Iran. The journey is long enough that the pair lodge at stopping places along the way.

6:2

Greek copies of Tobit differ here. Some say the fish tried to swallow the young man; others, including the longest and oldest Greek manuscript, say it tried to swallow his foot, which is why some modern Bibles read differently.

6:3

An angel is a messenger sent by God. This angel looks like an ordinary man. The young man, Tobias, does not know who he really is.

6:4

The gall is bile, the bitter greenish fluid the liver produces and the gallbladder stores. Fish gall, liver and heart were standard ingredients in ancient medicine, and a traveler would carry them dried.

6:5

Ecbatane, usually spelled Ecbatana, was the capital of Media, on the site of modern Hamadan in Iran. It was a well known royal city, the summer residence of the Persian kings.

6:6

The angel is traveling under a human name. In chapter 5 he introduced himself to Tobit as Azarias son of Ananias, a kinsman, and Tobias does not know he is speaking to Raphael. Azarias, the Greek form of Azariah, means "the Lord has helped," and Raphael means "God heals." "Brother" here is how relatives and fellow Israelites addressed each other, not a claim to be a literal brother.

6:7

Where the King James says "a devil," the Greek word is daimonion, a demon, one spirit among many, not the Devil. Burning substances to produce a smoke that drives off a spirit was a recognized procedure in ancient Near Eastern and Greek medicine, which did not separate healing from dealing with spirits.

6:8

"Whiteness in his eyes" means a white film or clouding over the eye, what would now be called a cataract or a corneal scar. Ancient medical writers, Greek and Mesopotamian alike, prescribed fish gall smeared on the eye for exactly this condition. The detail sets up what happens to Tobit's own eyes later in the book.

6:9

Rages, or Rhagae, was a city in Media near modern Tehran, about two hundred miles from Ecbatana. The Greek copies of Tobit disagree about the order of the towns here, so the travelers' route is confusing in this version: they have just neared Ecbatana, and now near Rages, and the angel speaks of returning from Rages later.

6:10

"Cousin" in 1611 English meant a relative of any kind, not specifically a first cousin. Raguel is a kinsman of Tobit's family. Sara is the woman introduced in chapter 3, whose prayer of despair was heard at the very same hour as Tobit's.

6:11

This is a claim in inheritance law. Under the rules in Numbers 27 and Numbers 36, a man who dies leaving daughters and no sons passes his property to the daughters, and such a daughter must marry within her father's own clan so that the land does not pass to another tribe. Sara is an only child, so whoever marries her takes the estate, and the nearest male relative has the first claim on her.

6:12

"Guilty of death" in older English means liable to the death penalty, not guilty of having killed someone. The law of Moses means the body of law in the first five books of the Bible. No text there actually sets a death penalty for marrying such an heiress outside the family, so the book is stating the custom in its strongest possible form.

6:13

This refers back to chapter 3, where Sara had been given to seven husbands in turn and the demon Asmodeus killed each one before the marriage could be consummated. The "marriage chamber" is the room prepared for the bride and groom on the wedding night; a Jewish wedding ended with the couple being brought into it.

6:14

"Go in unto her" is a Hebrew idiom for sexual intercourse, and it is what killed the seven men before him. Tobias's second fear is equally concrete: a son was expected to bury his parents and see to the mourning rites, and Tobit has spent the whole book risking his life to bury the dead. If the only son dies first, his parents go to the grave unburied.

6:15

In chapter 4 Tobit gave his son a set of parting instructions, among them the charge to take a wife from his own family and not from outside it. Marrying within the kin group is a running concern of the book, which is set among exiles trying to keep an identity in a foreign country.

6:16

"Perfume" here means incense, a substance burned to give off scented smoke, not a liquid scent. The ashes of perfume are the hot embers left in the censer after incense has been burned; laying the fish organs on them makes them smolder and smoke.

6:17

"She is appointed unto thee from the beginning" uses the language of betrothal: she was marked out as yours in advance. "Thou shalt preserve her" means you will save or rescue her, not merely keep her. The King James "his heart was effectually joined to her" renders a Greek phrase meaning his very self clung to her, the same wording used in Genesis for a man joining to his wife.