Commentaria in Tobiam
Chapter 9. Synopsis of the Chapter
Tobias sends Raphael to Rages to exact the deposit from Gabelus, and invites him to the wedding. Gabelus comes, and wishes the bride and bridegroom every happiness.
1. Then Tobias called the angel to him, whom he took to be a man, and said to him: Brother Azarias, I beg thee to hearken to my words. 2. If I should give myself to be thy servant, I should not make a worthy return for thy care. 3. Nevertheless I beseech thee to take with thee beasts or servants, and go to Gabelus in Rages, a city of the Medes, and restore to him his note of hand, and receive of him the money, and desire him to come to my wedding. 4. For thou knowest that my father numbereth the days: and if I stay one day more, his soul will be afflicted. 5. And indeed thou seest how Raguel hath adjured me, whose adjuration I cannot despise. 6. Then Raphael taking four of Raguel’s servants and two camels, went to Rages, the city of the Medes, and finding Gabelus, gave him his note of hand, and received of him all the money. 7. And he told him concerning Tobias the son of Tobias all that had been done: and made him come with him to the wedding. 8. And when he was come into the house of Raguel, he found Tobias sitting at the table: and he leaped up, and they kissed each other: and Gabelus wept, and blessed God, 9. And said: The God of Israel bless thee, because thou art the son of a most good and just man, and that feareth God, and doth alms-deeds: 10. And may a blessing be pronounced upon thy wife, and upon your parents: 11. And may you see your children, and your children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation: and may your seed be blessed by the God of Israel, who reigneth for ever and ever. 12. And when all had said, Amen, they went to the feast: but the marriage feast they celebrated also with the fear of the Lord.
2. “IF I SHOULD GIVE MYSELF TO BE THY SERVANT, I SHOULD NOT MAKE A WORTHY RETURN FOR THY CARE,”—that is, I shall not have satisfied thy provident care for me, nor repaid it with a worthy reward.
3. “SERVANTS,”—that is, servants.
“AND GO TO GABELUS IN RAGES OF THE MEDES.”—You will say: They were already in Rages; for there Sara is said to have lived, chapter 3, verse 7. I answer: They were in Rages, that is, in the field or territory of Rages, as one who lives at Tusculum is said to live at Rome, though he does not live in the city of Rome itself. Or rather it must be said that there were two cities having the same name Rages. So Lyranus, Bellarmine and others. Sanchez gives the cause, that Rages is a Median word taken over by the Greeks. For in Greek rhagas, that is, fissure, rupture, or fracture. Rages therefore signifies a rocky, cleft, broken place; since therefore each city here was situated in rugged and rough places, each was called Rages. But in Hebrew Rages signifies crowd, tumult, noise, trembling, roaring.
10. “AND MAY A BLESSING BE PRONOUNCED UPON THY WIFE, AND UPON YOUR PARENTS,”—that all seeing your virtue, and therefore the blessing and prosperity of God, may call down blessings on you, and say: Blessed be Sara, who is the wife of so upright a man as Tobias; blessed be the parents of both, who leave behind them such noble sons and daughters. For the honour and praise of children is the honour and praise of parents: for the disgrace, as well as the glory, of children redounds on their parents. Wherefore the Emperor Basil gave to his son Leo this notable counsel, indeed a spur to emulate paternal virtue: “Do not, I beseech you, put to shame a loving father. For painters ought to draw the outlines of bodies, but the sons of kings, as living images, to show forth the virtues of their fathers.” So also that woman, seeing the virtues and wisdom of Christ, cried out: “Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck,” Luke 11:27.
12. “BUT THE MARRIAGE FEAST THEY CELEBRATED ALSO WITH THE FEAR OF THE LORD,”—They feasted cheerfully, but honestly, modestly, soberly and chastely, lest by surfeit, or lascivious or obscene speech, they should offend God, so that he should send Asmodeus again into the house. Let spouses and guests imitate this, to keep from their tables drunkenness, quarrels, detractions, filthiness of speech, by which God is offended, and curses spouses and banquets. Let them hear Plato, Laws book 6: “Let the expense be according to riches; but to drink to drunkenness is not fitting anywhere, nor is it safe; but most of all those joined in marriage, bridegroom and bride, ought then to be in possession of their minds, when they enter on no small change of life; especially that generation be made by those most moderate: it is also almost uncertain which night or day, he with God, will bring it about. Wherefore, that conception may be solid, stable and quiet, one ought not to attend to children when the bodies are relaxed with drunkenness. But he who is filled with wine, stirred with frenzy of soul as of body, both drags and is dragged anywhere. Therefore a drunkard, as one bereft of mind, is useless for sowing. It is likely that he begets unequal, unstable, crooked offspring, in limbs as in bodies. Wherefore through the whole of life, and especially while one is devoted to generation, each will abstain and take care not to do either what by its own nature and of itself induces diseases, or what tends to wantonness and injury. For these things are necessarily transferred to the souls and bodies of the children who are born, and imprinted on them, and worse are born from them. But chiefly on that day (of the wedding) and night.” The Greek here adds: Tobias blessed his wife; that is, he prayed well for her, that she might be fruitful and bear and bring up upright sons: so Isaac “besought the Lord for his wife” Rebecca, Genesis 25:21.