Commentaria in Tobiam
Chapter 10
Tobias’s mother sighs for his return; Raguel sends Tobias away with his daughter Sara, and hands over to him half his goods, and gives Sara counsels: to love her husband, honour her parents-in-law, and rightly govern the household.
1. But as Tobias made longer stay, by reason of the wedding, his father Tobias was in care, saying: Why thinkest thou doth my son tarry, or why is he detained there? 2. Is Gabelus dead, thinkest thou, and no man will pay him the money? 3. And he began to be exceedingly sad, both he and Anna his wife with him: and they began both to weep together, because their son did not return to them on the day appointed. 4. His mother therefore wept with irremediable tears, and said: Woe, woe is me, my son, why did we send thee to travel, the light of our eyes, the staff of our old age, the comfort of our life, the hope of our posterity? 5. Having all things together in thee alone, we ought not to have let thee go from us. 6. To whom Tobias said: Hold thy peace and be not troubled, our son is safe; the man with whom we sent him is trusty enough. 7. But she could by no means be comforted, but daily running out looked round about, and went about all the ways by which there was any hope he might return, that she might see him afar off, if it were possible, coming. 8. But Raguel said to his son-in-law: Stay here, and I will send a messenger of good tidings of thee to Tobias thy father. 9. To whom Tobias said: I know that my father and mother now count the days, and their spirit is grievously afflicted within them. 10. And when Raguel with many words entreated Tobias, and he would by no means hear him, he delivered Sara to him, and half of all his substance in menservants and womenservants, in cattle, in camels, and in kine, and in much money, and sent him away safe and joyful from him, 11. Saying: The holy angel of the Lord be with you in your journey, and bring you through safe, and may you find all things well about your parents, and may my eyes see your children before I die. 12. And the parents taking their daughter kissed her, and let her go: 13. Admonishing her to honour her parents-in-law, to love her husband, to take care of the family, to govern the house, and to behave herself irreprehensibly.
4. “WOE, WOE IS ME, MY SON, WHY DID WE SEND THEE TO TRAVEL, THE LIGHT OF OUR EYES?” (For the father was blind, the mother was dim-sighted with age: wherefore the son was to them as eyes, that through him they might see, read, and do what was to be seen, read and done. The same he calls) “THE STAFF OF OUR OLD AGE” (So Scipio at Rome was so named, because, as a staff (scipio), he supported his old, dim-sighted father, and led and guided him on the way). “AND THE COMFORT OF OUR LIFE;” (for sons console the old age of parents, and its miseries and troubles). “AND THE HOPE OF OUR POSTERITY;”—for he was the only son, on whom the propagation of the whole family depended. For parents desire to leave sons after them, that in them they may as it were survive, and live in the memory of men, as Ecclesiasticus chapter 30, verse 4 ff. teaches.
10. “HE DELIVERED SARA TO HIM, AND HALF OF ALL HIS SUBSTANCE IN MENSERVANTS,” etc.—The Hebrews add more fully: Raguel gave him Sara his daughter, half of his riches, and menservants and maidservants, and flocks, and oxen, and asses, and camels, and linen and precious garments, and vessels of silver and gold. The Greek has: He gave him bodies, beasts of burden and silver. Bodies, that is, servants or slaves, who, lacking liberty, seem to be nothing but bodies, enslaved to a master’s service. So Aristotle, Rhetoric book 1, Demosthenes, Philippic 3, Strabo, book 1, call slaves somata, that is, bodies.
11. “THE HOLY ANGEL OF THE LORD BE WITH YOU IN YOUR JOURNEY, AND BRING YOU THROUGH SAFE.”—Hence again it is clear that Gabelus and the ancient Hebrews believed that an Angel is assigned for guardianship, to direct a man on the way.
13. “ADMONISHING HER TO HONOUR HER PARENTS-IN-LAW,”—as parents; whence the Greek adds: Because they are now thy parents. Raguel here gives his daughter Sara counsels of virtue and salvation. The first is that she honour her parents-in-law, namely Tobias the elder and Anna; the second, that she love her husband, as one with whom she is now made one flesh, and consequently one person, one heart, one soul, one will. This love makes the wife bravely overcome the husband’s manners unlike her own, his choler, vices, misfortunes, and any adversities, many of which occur in marriage. Whence St. Monica admonished wives that by marriage they should reckon themselves made handmaids of their husbands, says St. Augustine, Confessions book 9, chapter 9. The third, that she rule the family, namely sons, servants and maidservants, so as to hold all in duty, concord, peace and mutual charity. The fourth, that she govern the house by remaining in it, not wandering hither and thither, preparing dinner and supper for all, procuring furniture, provisions, clothing and other necessaries, as that valiant woman praised by Solomon did, Proverbs 31. See what was said there. The fifth, that she show herself irreprehensible, not only in faith and conjugal chastity, but also by restraint of the tongue, justice, prudence, courtesy in conversation, both with the household and with strangers. The same counsels the Apostle gives to wives, Titus 2:4: “That they love their husbands, love their children, be prudent, chaste, sober, having care of the house, kind, subject to their husbands.” See what was said there. Like precepts to spouses St. Peter delivers, epistle 1, chapter 3; nay Plato, Laws book 6, Xenophon in the Oeconomicus, and Plutarch, On Marriage Precepts. Finally in the Greek, Edna (for so it has for Anna), mother of Sara, thus addresses her son-in-law Tobias in bidding farewell: The Lord of heaven restore thee, dear brother, to thine own, and grant me that I may see thy children by Sara my daughter, and rejoice before the Lord. Behold I commit my daughter to thee as a kind of deposit, that thou afflict her with no molestation. Then he blessed Raguel and Edna his wife, praying all happy things for them, and went on his way, giving thanks to God that he had granted him a prosperous journey; until they drew near to Ninive.