Tobit, Amos 8:10, Daniel 3:51-90, Revelation 21:18-21
The book of Tobit, with all its action and suspense, is studded with poignant prophecies and prayers. Its first section includes a pessimistic prophecy of Amos, and the book concludes with the hopeful prophecy of Tobit as his last will and testament. Throughout the narrative, key figures like Tobit, Sarah, and Tobias pour out their hearts to God, and confess His generosity and care. The main action of the story is catalyzed by the twin prayers of Tobit and his future daughter-in-law Sarah, who on the same day present their sorrow to God, and are speedily answered when “the prayer of both [is] heard in the presence of the great glory of Raphael, and he [is] sent to heal the two of them.” At the most suspenseful point of the story, the young groom Tobias utters a prayer of hope, which is confirmed by the “Amen” of his bride Sarah. After it is discovered that the two have actually escaped the expected demonic curse of their wedding night, Sarah’s father Raguel utters a poignant blessing and thanksgiving. When the couple returns to the home of Tobit and Anna, the patriarch Tobit utters a prayer of joy, and indeed WRITES it, thus encasing it in a solemn act for posterity.
In all we encounter an initial and concluding prophecy, and five internal prayers. Let us probe them in the order that they appear in the narrative, in order to trace the story’s shape and its impact upon us, the readers.
The pessimism of Amos aptly describes the initial situation of Tobit and Anna, in exile: “Your feasts will be turned into mourning, and all your gladness into a song of grief” (Amos 8:10). By means of Tobit’s actual situation, we are helped to understand the misery of the exiles from Israel. Tobit’s reversal from joy into grief, taken from Amos, is dramatized when Tobit quotes the phrase just after he has sat down with his family to the feast of Pentecost, which is interrupted by news concerning the murder of a fellow Jew, whose body is lying in the marketplace. He leaves his feast, mourns and weeps, and once evening comes, goes to honor and bury the body. Little does he know that Amos’ prophecy will be confirmed in his own body, for that night he is struck blind, and goes into abject poverty. All this is doubly tragic, since just prior to what was supposed to be a joyful Pentecost he has been restored to his family, after being in exile and impoverished due to pious actions forbidden by the emperor Sennacherib. The hope had been that finally, since he has a kinsman in high office who can influence the king, Tobit would be allowed to live in peace. But this hope has been dashed by news of the murdered Jew. Tobit again acts according to his faith, knowing that he is risking political censure. And this fear is coupled with the natural disaster of his blindness visited on him that night.
After suffering this fate, and engaging in a sharp dispute with his dear wife, he prays a lament that is utterly personal, but which well expresses the dismay of any faithful person who has been in distress for a long time and has nearly lost hope:
O Lord, You are righteous. So too are all Your works. All Your ways are mercy and truth. Your judgments are true and just forever. Remember me and look upon me with favor. Do not punish me for my sins and my ignorance, nor those sins of my fathers which they committed against You. Because they disobeyed Your commands, so You gave us as spoil, captivity, and death. You made us a byword of disgrace among all the nations in which we were scattered. Now Your judgments concerning my sins are many and they are true, because I did not keep Your commandments. Indeed we did not walk in truth before You. Now do with me as is best before You. Command that my spirit be taken up, so I may be released and become soil, since it is better for me to die than to live. For I have heard false insults, and there is much sorrow within me. Command that I be freed from distress to now enter into the eternal place. Do not turn Your face away from me (3:2-6).
Like the long-suffering Job, Tobit has all but despaired of this life. After suffering religious persecution and exile, he has been ruined economically, borne the insults of his neighbors, experienced blindness, and had a major disagreement with his usually supportive wife. In fact, his confession during the prayer, that he has committed sin in ignorance, appears to be his acknowledgement that he has wrongly accused his wife of theft. This personal guilt only adds to the misery he is experiencing because others are wrongly accusing him of foolishness, for insisting on burying the righteous dead. Despite the attacks and his mistakes, he still retains a faith in the God who cares for His people, and hopes for entry into eternity. The prayer begins by praising God for His righteous character and His ways, and ends with hope that He will not turn away from Tobit. Though Tobit longs to die, and return to soil, he leaves the future in God’s hands: “Now do with me as is best before You.” The acknowledgment of his own sin and the sin of his ancestors frees him to commit what remains of his life to God, who sees and knows all.
The prayer of this old man is paired with that of a despondent young girl, who has been wrongly accused of murder by her maids, and who has lost seven suitors to a demon. She, too, longs to die, but knows that suicide will bring further shame and sorrow to her family. And so she prays in her upper room:
Blessed are You, O Lord my God, unto the ages. May all Your works bless you forever. Now, O Lord, I offer myself completely to You. Command that I be released from the land, that I may not hear such disgrace any more. O Lord, You know that I am innocent of any sin with a man. I have not defiled my name nor the name of my father in the land of my captivity. I am my father’s only offspring. He has no other child who will be his heir. Neither does he have a brother close at hand, nor an adopted son that I might keep myself as a wife to him. Seven of my husbands have already perished. What should I live for? But if it does not seem good to You to kill me, command that I be looked upon with favor, and that mercy be shown to me, so I may no longer hear disgrace (3:11-15).
Sarah’s words display even more vulnerability than those of Tobit. Though she expresses a desire to die, she begins and ends with submission to God’s will. Of course, God knows her situation, so the prayer also serves to gain sympathy from the reader for this pure girl who is an only child, who has been accused by even her maids, and who has lost seven opportunities for marriage. Moreover, the situation is such that all other avenues for marriage are closed off to her, since there is no other suitable man to be found among her kin. God’s sovereignty is emphasized in her plea that the Lord “command” both her release and her acceptance by others with favor. Despite her circumstances, and the oppression of her life by a ravenous demon who seeks to kill each of her loves, she has not lost confidence that God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful.
The longing of these two for either death or a reversal of their circumstances kicks of the action, since the prayers are effective, and to answer both of them will mean to bring the families of Tobit and Sarah together. At this point we know more than the characters, since we are told that God will answer their prayers, healing Tobit, binding the demon, and giving Sarah to Tobias as wife. The next four chapters follow the leave-taking of Tobias, who is given wise instructions from his father, the exploits of Raphael and Tobias along the road, and the arrival of the travelers at the home of his future bride, the revelation that Tobias is kin to Sarah’s family, and the preparation of the marriage contract, dictated by Raguel (Sarah’s father), and written by Sarah’s mother, Edna. We have reached the climax of the story! Here, Tobias enters into Sarah’s prepared chamber, sets out the demon-chasing incense and fish innards, as directed by the angel, and awakens his wife to pray with him:
Blessed are You, O God of our fathers, and blessed is Your holy and glorious name unto the ages. The heavens and all Your creatures bless You. You made Adam and gave him Eve as a helper, his wife as a support. From them the seed of mankind came to be. You said, “it is not good for the man to be alone. Let Us make a helper for him like himself.” O Lord, I now take this my sister as my wife, not on account of fornication but in truth. Command that she and I may have mercy, and in this grow old together (8:5-7)
To this prayer, Sarah says, “Amen,” and the two “fall asleep” for the night. (Readers may wonder about the consummation, but presumably it is implied). The prayer of Tobias is reminiscent of other Biblical prayers, notably the “Blessed are You” that begins the Song of the Three (Daniel 3:51-90) in the fiery furnace. Tobias appears to be setting up the sacramental night that will be shared with his bride, blessing God, remembering the whole creation, and particularly the creation of humanity as man and woman, and rejoicing in the blessing of offspring. His prayer puts God’s praise first, and the creational order first, emphasizing God’s actions, and his own as governed by that—in the first place, Sarah is his “sister” (a fellow human being) and their marital act will be one of purity, not of lust. He asks that God direct their ways in mercy, and that they spend the entirety of a long life together, just as the Orthodox wedding service prays, “Grant them to lead an upright and blameless life even unto a ripe old age.” In the marriage contract, Raguel the husband writes the words, but Edna does the writing—the two acting as a single agent. Here, Tobias prays aloud, and Sarah seals the prayer with an Amen.
Once the blessed and unblemished morning arrives, Raguel himself utters a prayer of delighted thanksgiving:
Blessed are You, the God, with every pure and holy blessing. Your holy ones and all Your creatures bless You. All your angels and Your chosen ones bless You unto all the ages. Blessed are You, for You have made me glad, and it did not turn out for me as I feared. Rather, You acted with us according to Your abundant mercy. Blessed are You, for You had mercy on our two only children. O Lord, show them mercy, and complete their life in health and with gladness (8:15-17)
Raguel is not exaggerating his pleased surprise, for he had already secretly dug a grave behind the house for Tobias in the (to him) likely event that the young man would be slain by the demon. The prayer adds to Tobias’ prayer of blessing, this time recalling not the act of creation, but the general and eternal praise of all of God’s creatures, earthly and heavenly, towards their aker. Little does he know that Tobias’ companion is Raphael, an archangel, who leads the cosmic praises, and has orchestrated this entire event. The prayer is exquisite in its psychology, reflecting the numerous times that we have longed for a good outcome while expecting the worst. Again, though it is personal, speaking of “I” it includes also Raguel’s household, going on to the “we,” and “our only children.” Moreover, like Tobias’ prayer for protection, it extends the request, looking to the future blessedness of the couple by God.
If the father-in-law’s prayer is concise, when we move to the finale at Tobit’s house, the thanksgiving is thorough, comprising the whole of chapter 13. Tobit speaks with exceeding joy, and indeed “writes” down the prayer, opening and closing his mouth in a formal way (13:1; 13:18). This prayer begins with the blessed and eternal God, speaks of God’s scourge and scattering, and urges the scattered Jews to praise Him even in exile, to repent, and to look for His merciful reversal of their situation. This, he says, the scattered will see for themselves, and so make known God’s power to the Gentiles. Tobit then remembers the holy city, prays for the restoration of the Tabernacle, and echoes the closing visionary chapter of Isaiah, that Gentiles would come to Jerusalem and worship. Several times he speaks of the blessing that God will give to the children of the righteous, and the joy that will come. Finally, he describes the final Jerusalem in some detail as “built with sapphire and emerald, and her walls with precious stones, and her towers and battlements with pure gold, and her streets with beryl, onyx, and stones from Ophir.” “All her streets,” he concludes, “will proclaim alleluia, and will give praise, saying ‘blessed is God, who exalted you unto all the ages.’”
This ecstatic prayer, then, becomes a mini-vision of the New Jerusalem, inhabited by the children of the faithful and by repentant Gentiles. In fact, if we hear the vision of Revelation 21:18-21, we notice a very similar description of jewels adorning the city, with detail not found anywhere else in the OT, not even in Isaiah or in Ezekiel, which both envisage that final fair city, when she is completely restored:
The city’s wall is made of jasper and the city is pure gold, like transparent glass. The foundations of the city’s wall are decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates are twelve pearls—each one of the gates is made from just one pearl! The main street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.
In Tobit, then, a story about the human wedding of Tobias and Sarah is concluded with a great blessing of God that looks forward to that mystical Jerusalem, which will emerge as the bride of God, with all the nations praising Him. St. John, who no doubt knew well the story of Tobit, recalls it for us, and reminds us of what it is that Tobit saw in his time of rejoicing.
Tobit’s prayer and future vision are underscored by final words given later to his family in his old age, when he calls Tobias and his grandchildren before him. At that time he gives to them both instructions and a marvelous prophecy. The prophecy, after predicting the overthrow of Ninevah, reads like this:
But God will again have mercy on them, and He will return them to the land. They will build the house, but not as it was before, until the times of the age are fulfilled. After this they will return from the captivity and build Jerusalem honorably. The house of God within her will be built as a glorious building for every generation forever, as the prophets said concerning her. All the Gentiles shall return to truly fear the Lord God. They shall bury their idols in the earth, and all the Gentiles will bless the Lord. His people will offer thanks to God, and the Lord will exalt his people. All who love the Lord God in truth and righteousness will rejoice. They will show mercy to our brethren (14:5-7).
It may not be possible to understand all that the author of Tobit intends to describe in detail, but we can discern both a pragmatic approach to historical events, and a hope for a spectacular end of Days. The hand-writing is on the wall, so to speak, for those pagans who have taken the Jewish people captive, and the prophecy envisages both their return and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. However, it looks beyond this to a time when Jerusalem’s glory will be known world-wide, and the true God will be worshipped even among “all the Gentiles.” A true union is envisaged between Jews and those who once worshipped idols, with God exalting all His people. In order to prepare for this, Tobit instructs his family to leave Ninevah, which will not escape God’s judgment, just as Jesus warned the early believers to leave Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The mixture of practical wisdom and hopeful vision is seen in Tobit, a wise father who knows that there are always troubles on earth, but also that God is the one who directs history, and that a final glorious Day will come. The book began with lament, and ends in hope; in that hope, though, there is still a pattern of falling, then of rising. Resurrection is given as the last word of God to us; yet we must be prepared for suffering, and hold fast through it all, as did Tobit, Anna, Tobias, and Sarah. Nor will we be alone: like Tobias and Sarah, God has appointed for us “an angel of peace, a faithful guide, and a guardian of our souls and bodies.” May our prayers, and our hopes reflect confidence in this divine care for us.
Edith M. Humphrey 