Tobit 7: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Tobias and his companion reach Ecbatana and come to the house of Raguel, where Sarah meets them and Raguel recognizes the family likeness. When Raguel learns that this is Tobit's son, he kisses him, blesses him, and weeps at the news that Tobit is blind. Tobias asks Raphael to raise the matter they had discussed on the road, and Raguel gives Sarah to him in marriage, telling him first that seven men have already died on the night they came in to her, and writing out and sealing a marriage contract. Edna prepares another room, brings Sarah in, weeps with her, and tells her to take comfort.

Claim by Claim

1. 7:1
   • They came to Ecbatana.
   • They came to the house of Raguel.
   • Sara met them.
   • They greeted one another.
   • Sara brought them into the house.
2. 7:2
   • Raguel spoke to Edna his wife.
   • Raguel said the young man greatly resembled Tobit.
   • Raguel said Tobit was his cousin.
3. 7:3
   • Raguel asked them where they were from.
   • Raguel addressed them as brethren.
   • They answered that they were of the sons of Nephthalim.
   • They said those sons of Nephthalim were captives in Nineve.
4. 7:4
   • Raguel asked them whether they knew Tobit.
   • Raguel called Tobit their kinsman.
   • They said they knew him.
   • Raguel asked whether Tobit was in good health.
5. 7:5
   • They said Tobit was alive.
   • They said Tobit was in good health.
   • Tobias said Tobit was his father.
6. 7:6
   • Raguel leaped up.
   • Raguel kissed him.
   • Raguel wept.
7. 7:7
   • Raguel blessed him.
   • Raguel said to him that he was the son of an honest and good man.
   • Raguel heard that Tobit was blind.
   • Raguel was sorrowful.
   • Raguel wept.
8. 7:8
   • Edna his wife wept.
   • Sara his daughter wept.
   • They entertained them cheerfully.
   • They killed a ram of the flock.
   • They set plenty of meat on the table.
   • Tobias spoke to Raphael, calling him brother Azarias.
   • Tobias told him to speak of the things he had talked of on the way.
   • Tobias told him to let the business be dispatched.
9. 7:9
   • He communicated the matter to Raguel.
   • Raguel told Tobias to eat.
   • Raguel told Tobias to drink.
   • Raguel told Tobias to make merry.
10. 7:10
    • Raguel said it was fitting that Tobias should marry his daughter.
    • Raguel said he would declare the truth to him.
11. 7:11
    • Raguel said he had given his daughter in marriage to seven men.
    • Raguel said those men died on the night they came in to her.
    • Raguel told him to be merry for the present.
    • Tobias said he would eat nothing there until they made an agreement.
    • Tobias said he would eat nothing there until they swore to one another.
12. 7:12
    • Raguel told him to take her from then on according to the custom.
    • Raguel said Tobias was her cousin.
    • Raguel said she was his.
    • Raguel said the merciful God would give them good success in all things.
13. 7:13
    • Raguel called his daughter Sara.
    • Sara came to her father.
    • Raguel took her by the hand.
    • Raguel gave her to be wife to Tobias.
    • Raguel told Tobias to take her after the law of Moses.
    • Raguel told Tobias to lead her away to his father.
    • Raguel blessed them.
14. 7:14
    • Raguel called Edna his wife.
    • Raguel took paper.
    • Raguel wrote an instrument of covenants.
    • Raguel sealed it.
15. 7:15
    • They began to eat.
16. 7:16
    • Raguel called his wife Edna.
    • Raguel addressed her as sister.
    • Raguel told her to prepare another chamber.
    • Raguel told her to bring Sara in there.
17. 7:17
    • Edna did as Raguel had bidden her.
    • Edna brought Sara there.
    • Edna wept.
    • Edna received the tears of her daughter.
    • Edna spoke to her.
18. 7:18
    • Edna told her daughter to be of good comfort.
    • Edna asked that the Lord of heaven and earth give her joy in place of this sorrow.
    • Edna told her daughter again to be of good comfort.

Words Worth Explaining

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

7:1

Ecbatana was the capital of Media, in the mountains of what is now northwestern Iran, several hundred miles east of Nineveh. Israelites deported by the Assyrians had settled in scattered communities across that empire, which is how Tobit's relatives come to be living there.

7:2

The family words in this chapter are loose. "Cousin" here, and "brother" and "kinsman" elsewhere, mean a member of the same extended family or clan rather than a precise degree of relationship. Raguel and Tobit belong to the same tribal kindred.

7:3

Naphtali was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, settled in the far north of the land. Assyria conquered that territory and deported its population, which is why these characters are living at Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, and at Ecbatana rather than at home. Addressing strangers as "brothers" marks them as fellow Israelites.

7:7

The Greek phrase behind "an honest and good man" was a stock expression for a thoroughly respectable person, sound in both character and conduct. It is a general commendation, not a claim about any particular act.

7:8

Killing a ram from the flock marked the meal as a feast for honored guests; meat was not everyday food, and slaughtering a whole animal was a costly gesture of welcome. "Azarias" is the name Tobias's traveling companion has given him: earlier in the book the angel Raphael presented himself as a kinsman of that name, hired as a guide, and Tobias has no idea he is anything else.

7:10

The Greek says more exactly that Sarah falls to Tobias by right. As her nearest eligible relative he has the first claim on her in marriage. Where a family had no son, marrying the daughter within the clan kept the family's land and property inside the family, the custom set out in Numbers 36.

7:11

"Came in to her" is the ordinary biblical way of speaking of sexual intercourse. Earlier in the book the seven deaths are laid to the demon Asmodeus, who killed each husband before the marriage could be consummated. Tobias's refusal to eat is a recognized gesture: accepting a host's food implied the matter was settled on the host's terms, so a guest with business outstanding declined until it was sworn. Abraham's servant does the same in Genesis 24.

7:12

"As the custom is" means following the usual steps a family took to arrange a marriage.

7:13

Taking the bride's hand and placing it in the groom's was the formal act that made the marriage. "According to the law of Moses" claims it as a proper Israelite marriage, contracted in exile but by the ancestral rules rather than local ones.

7:14

The word rendered "paper" means a writing sheet or scroll; the document is a marriage contract setting out what the two families have agreed. Sealing it, by pressing a personal seal into wax or clay, served as a signature and made the contract binding. Jewish marriage contracts of exactly this kind survive on papyrus from the centuries around this book's writing.

7:16

Husband and wife address each other as "brother" and "sister" throughout this book, a term of affection also found in ancient love poetry; in marriages within the same kindred it is close to literally true as well. The room being prepared is the bridal chamber for the wedding night, the room in which Sarah's seven previous husbands died.

7:17

The Greek says literally that she received her daughter's tears. It describes sharing the weeping, holding her while she cried, rather than any particular gesture.