Chapter X

1–7. The sorrow of Tobit and his wife for Tobias. 8–14. Raguel and Edna, at the insistent request of Tobias, let the latter and his wife go and bid them farewell with blessings and good wishes. 1. Tobit his father counted every day. And when the days of the journey were fulfilled, and he did not come, 2. Tobit said, "Have they not been detained?" or have not Gabael died, and there is no one to give them the silver? 3. And he was very sad. 4. And his wife said to him, "Our son is dead, therefore he does not come." And she began to weep for him and said: 5. Nothing occupies me, my son, because I have let you go, the light of my eyes! 6. Tobit said to her, "Be silent, do not be alarmed, he is well." 7. And she said to him, "Be silent, do not deceive me; My offspring perished. "And every day she went out of town to the road along which they went; by day she ate no bread, and by night she did not cease to weep for her son Tobias, until the fourteen days of the wedding feast which Raguel had sworn him to spend there were finished. Then Tobias said to Raguel, Let me go, for my father and mother have no hope of seeing me any more.

1–7. In v. 2, according to the accepted Greek text, there is an inappropriate word κατάσχονται, Slavic: shame the essence; here is an obvious mistake, which can be easily corrected from other texts: to Sinaisk. code. LXX stands κατεσξέθη, in Vet. Lat. and Vulg.: detentus est, detained, i.e., according to the assumption of Tobit, his son could have been detained by some difficulty in obtaining money from Gabael.

In the same way, in v. 5, in the accepted Greek text, there is a completely inappropriate expression: ού μέλει μοί, Slavonic: I have no care. The correct reading is again available in Sinaisk. cf. ουαί μοι, and in Vet. Lat: vale mini, or in Vulg.: Неу heu me.

8. And his father-in-law said to him, "Stay with me; I will send to your father, and they will tell him about you. 9. And Tobias said, "No, let me go to my father." 10. And Raguel arose and gave him Sarah his wife, and half of his possessions, and his servants and cattle, and the silver, 11. And when he had blessed them, he sent them away, saying, "Children! may the God of heaven be pleased with you before I die. 12. Then he said to his daughter, "Honor your father-in-law and mother-in-law; now they are thy parents; I wish to hear a good rumor about you. And he kissed her. And Edna said to Tobias, "Beloved brother, may the Lord of heaven raise you up, and grant me to see the children of Sarah my daughter, that I may rejoice in the Lord." And behold, I give thee my daughter for safekeeping; do not grieve her. 13. After that, Tobias went out, blessing God for making his way well, and he blessed Raguel and Edna his wife. And they went on their way, and they came near to Nineveh.

8–13. In the accepted Greek text, as well as in the Slavic-Russian. Translation, in v. 11 there is an omission of the words in other Greek lists: καί ίδοιμι υμώνπαιδία — that I may see your children, — as a result of which there is a strange idea that Raguel asked God to be blessed only until his death.

Overall, the blessing given by Raguel and Edna to their daughter Sarah and son-in-law Tobias (vv. 11-13) is the finest example of parental blessing to newlyweds in the Old Testament. It is not in vain that the marriage of Tobias was and is considered by the Jews to be a perfect image of a holy and pious marriage, which is why it is considered a rule among the Jews to imitate the marriage celebration of Tobias in the arrangement of marriage. The sublime biblical view of marriage as a well-established monogamous union of man and woman (Genesis II-III chapters) in the book of Tobit is carried out and realized in the very lives of the pious Tobit and Tobias.

Chapter XI

Tobias' Arrival in Nineveh 1–3. Preparation for a meeting with parents. 4–9. A joyful meeting of Tobit and Anna with their son. 10–14. The Epiphany of Tobit. 15–18. Tobit's meeting of Sarah and a new seven-day wedding celebration in Nineveh. 1. And Raphael said to Tobias, "You know, brother, in what condition you have left your father; 2. Let us go forward before your wife, and prepare the room; 3. And you take in your hand and fish bile. And they went; The dog ran after them.

1–3. In the Codex Sinaiticus LXX, verse 1, the locality to which the travelers approached, Raphael, Tobit, and Sarah on their way to Nineveh, is named: εις Κασερείν, ή έστιν κατέναντι Νινευή, no to another list, εις Καισαρειαν. But, of course, it is impossible to see here any of the Caesarea that appeared only at the time of Roman rule. In the same way, the name of Charan in the Vulgate cannot be seen in the Mesopotamian city of Haran, known from the history of Abraham (Gen. XI:31, cf. Commentaries, Bible Vol. I), to the south-east. from the city of Edessa, which was afterwards part of the kingdom of Assyria (2 Kings XIX:12; Commentaries of the Bible, vol. II), since the latter Haran lay in the north-west of Mesopotamia, following west of the Tigris River, while the area mentioned in Book II. Tobit (XI:1), at any rate to the east of the Tigris (Nineveh itself lay on the east bank of the Tigris, and Ecbatana and Raga of the Medes were still farther to the east). Without a doubt, this refers to some locality unknown to the translators of the book (perhaps Kisiri at the canal of the Kosera River - Husur, see Prof. Drozdov, pp. 507-508).

4. Meanwhile Anna sat looking for her son on the road, 5. And when she saw him coming, she said to his father, "Behold, your son is coming, and the man who went with him." 6. Raphael said, "I know, Tobias, that your father's eyes will be opened; 7. Only anoint his eyes with gall, and he will feel the pungency and wipe them, and the eyesore will fall away, and he will see you. 8. Anna ran up and threw herself on her son's neck and said to him, "I have seen you, my child, and now I will die." And they both began to cry. 9. But Tobit went to the door and stumbled, but his son hastened to him, and supported his father, 10. And he put gall to his father's eyes, and said, "Be of good cheer, my father! 11. His eyes are jammed, and he wiped them,

6–7. 9–11. The bile, which was to serve as a curative remedy for Tobit's eyesight (cf. VI:9), may have been preserved by Tobias either in the form of powder, in which, presumably, he used the heart and liver of fish for smoking (VI:7; VIII:2-3), or in the form of an ointment, with the addition of some other substances. The very possibility of the healing effect of bile on vision, regardless of the grace-filled, miraculous character of Tobit's insight, can be confirmed by the data of ancient and modern medicine (see Prof. Drozdov, pp. 353-360).

12. And the eyesore was removed from the corners of his eyes. And when he saw his son, he fell on his neck 13. and he wept and said, "Blessed are you, O God, and blessed is your name forever, blessed am all your holy angels!" 14. Because you have punished and had mercy on me. Behold, I see Tobias my son. And his son went in joyfully, and told his father about the wonderful things that had happened to him in Media. 15. And Tobit went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gates of Nineveh, rejoicing and blessing God. Those who saw him coming were amazed at how he had regained his sight. 16. And Tobit confessed before them that God had mercy on him. When Tobit came to Sarah, his daughter-in-law, he blessed her and said, "Hail, my daughter! Blessed be God, who brought you to us, and blessed are your father and mother. And all his brethren in Nineveh rejoiced.

13–16. Tobit's gratitude and confession of praise to God has a sublimely pious, truly theocratic tone and character. With a strong faith in God the Provident here (v. 13), the faith of the Old Testament righteous man in the Angels and their prayerful glorification are expressed, probably in connection with the thought or for the time being a premonition of the beneficence of Tobias on the part of the Angel Raphael.