Commentaria in Tobiam
Chapter 7
Synopsis of the Chapter. Tobias asks Sara as wife of her father Raguel, and obtains her; the marriage contract is written,
1. And they went in to Raguel, and Raguel received them with joy. 2. And Raguel looking upon Tobias, said to Anna his wife: How like is this young man to my cousin! 3. And when he had said these words, he asked: Whence are you, young men our brethren? But they said: We are of the tribe of Nephthali, of the captivity of Ninive. 4. And Raguel said to them: Do you know Tobias my brother? And they said: We know him. 5. And when he spoke many good things of him, the angel said to Raguel: Tobias, concerning whom you inquire, is this young man’s father. 6. And Raguel went to him, and kissed him with tears, and weeping upon his neck, said: A blessing be upon thee, my son, because thou art the son of a good and most virtuous man. 8. And Anna his wife, and Sara their daughter wept. 9. And after they had spoken, Raguel commanded a ram to be killed, and a feast to be prepared. And when he desired them to sit down to dinner, 10. Tobias said: I will not eat nor drink here this day, unless thou first grant my petition, and promise to give me Sara thy daughter. 11. Now when Raguel heard this word, he was afraid, knowing what had happened to those seven husbands that went in unto her: and he feared lest it might happen to him also in like manner: and as he was in suspense, and gave no answer to his petition, 12. The angel said to him: Be not afraid to give her to this man, for to him who feareth God is thy daughter due to be his wife: therefore another could not have her. 13. Then Raguel said: I doubt not but God hath regarded my prayers and tears in his sight. 14. And I believe he hath therefore made you come to me, that this maid might be married to one of her own kindred, according to the law of Moses: and now doubt not but I will give her to thee. 15. And taking the right hand of his daughter, he gave it into the right hand of Tobias, saying: The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob be with you, and may he join you together, and fulfil his blessing in you. 16. And taking paper they made a writing of the marriage. 17. And afterwards they made merry, blessing God.
18. And Raguel called to him Anna his wife, and bade her prepare another chamber. 19. And she brought Sara her daughter in thither, and she wept. 20. And she said to her: Be of good cheer, my daughter, the Lord of heaven give thee joy for the trouble thou hast undergone.
2. “HOW LIKE IS THIS YOUNG MAN TO MY COUSIN!”—namely to Tobias the elder, who was Raguel’s cousin on the father’s side. For the younger Tobias was like his father, as often happens.
3. “WE ARE OF THE TRIBE OF NEPHTHALI.”—Note that Tobias said this, not the angel Raphael. For Tobias thought that Raphael was not an Angel but his fellow tribesman: “They said,” that is, one, Tobias, said, answering for both, namely both for the Angel his companion and for himself: if, however, anyone contends that these are the words of both, and that Raphael asserts that he is of the tribe of Nephthali not as a son but as a guardian or tutelary Angel, in the way that in Daniel 10 there is spoken of the Angel of the Persians, of the Greeks, of the Hebrews: and in this sense Angels can be called our fellow citizens and tribesmen. So the Angel of John the Apostle calls himself his fellow servant, Apocalypse 19:10. Finally Raphael here had assumed the form, person and name of Azarias, and therefore could rightly call himself a Nephthalite; for such was Azarias. See what was said in chapter 5, verse 18.
4. “DO YOU KNOW TOBIAS MY BROTHER?”—“Brother,” that is, cousin and kinsman, as I have said.
6. “AND RAGUEL WENT TO HIM”—to the neck of Tobias, embracing and kissing him. In the Greek: Raguel leaped up for joy.
8. “WEPT.”—The Greek adds that they did so after they heard that Tobias had lost the sight of his eyes.
11. “WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO THOSE SEVEN HUSBANDS THAT WENT IN UNTO HER,”—namely into the bridal chamber before the marital embrace. For the Greek and Hebrew add: “The demon killed them before they were with her as with wives,” that is, before they had had the conjugal union with her.
You will ask: Why did so many bridegrooms seek Sara, especially when the later ones had seen the death of the earlier? I answer: The first allurement was Sara’s singular beauty and loveliness; the second, that she was sole heir of the great wealth of her father Raguel; the third, that they perhaps thought her due to them by right of kinship, since Tobias was absent, to whom, as is held in verse 11, she was due as nearer in blood. Fourth, because love made them mad. For, as St. Augustine says, “he is too rash who strives to cross over where he has seen another fall.”
Happy he whom the perils of others make wary.
And, as Pliny says, book 28, chapter 5: “It is best to enjoy the madness of others.”
Again, learn here how every pleasure, even of marriage, is doubtful and unstable. Behold, these bridegrooms are killed at their very wedding, as has happened to many like them, and often happens; whence the proverb of Ben Sira: “The bride goes up into the chamber, and knows not what is to befall her.” For as Seneca says, epistle 26: “It is uncertain in what place death awaits you. Therefore do you await it in every place.”
Again let spouses learn here to use marriage chastely, and others to live chastely, lest they be killed by Asmodeus like these unchaste bridegrooms. A few years ago, when I was in Belgium, a grave priest of our Society told me that in the army mission he had often warned a certain soldier, infamous for concubinage, to amend his life, but in vain; wherefore at length, moved by zeal and enthusiasm, he threatened him and declared that unless he quickly amended he would experience the sharp vengeance of God. So it happened, for a little after, God sent a storm, thunder and lightning with a horrid crash, and terror of all, and struck and blasted that one man in the foul embrace of his concubine together with her by lightning; and so in the very act he gave his body to the lightning, his soul to hell, all crying out: “Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgment is right!”
“HE FEARED LEST IT MIGHT HAPPEN TO HIM ALSO IN LIKE MANNER.”—St. Ambrose praises Raguel, On Duties book 3, chapter 14: “Raguel,” he says, “expressed especially the form of honesty, who, in contemplation of honesty, when he was asked to give his daughter in marriage, did not keep silent about the faults of his daughter either, lest he should seem to circumvent the suitor by silence.” And a little after: “The just man feared more for strangers, and preferred his daughter to remain unmarried rather than that strangers should be imperilled by her marriage.”
16. “THEY MADE A WRITING OF THE MARRIAGE.”—They made an authentic instrument, in which they wrote down the conditions and covenants of the marriage, namely the promises of both bridegroom and bride, and of her parents. The parents did not hesitate, though terrified by the death of the seven bridegrooms, to give their daughter Sara to Tobias; both because Raphael by the gravity, indeed majesty, of his countenance and words urged it and pledged security, and because God inwardly stirred them to the marriage; so Dionysius, Serarius