Tobit — Chapter 13

BENEDIXIT DOMINUM — The Greek says: 'He wrote a prayer in praise and said.' This canticle of Tobias constitutes the greater part of chapter 13, containing a prophetic hymn about Jerusalem's desolation and future glory that is analyzed at length in the following verses.

IPSE SALVABIT NOS PROPTER MISERICORDIAM SUAM — God will save us on account of His mercy toward Israel. The Greek here adds: 'And He will gather us from all the nations among which He has scattered us; if you turn to Him with your whole heart and your whole soul to do truth before Him, then He will turn to you and not hide His face from you.'

OSTENDIT MAJESTATEM SUAM IN GENTEM PECCATRICEM — God displayed His august divine power, justice, and vengeance against the sinful Israelite people by punishing their idolatry through Assyrian deportation and captivity; and again displayed His magnificent clemency by taking mercy on them and restoring them from captivity to their homeland.

JERUSALEM CIVITAS DEI CASTIGAVIT TE DOMINUS IN OPERIBUS MANUUM TUARUM — God chastised Jerusalem: partly many Jews had already been deported with the impious king Manasseh to Babylon; partly under Joachim and Sedecia the remainder would be deported by Nebuchadnezzar (Tobias prophesies of the future as if past, due to prophetic certainty). Lapide notes that from this verse through ch. 14:1,8-9, Tobias prophesies on three levels: (1) literally, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the restoration of the temple after 70 years of captivity by Cyrus; (2) allegorically, about the renovation and expansion of the Church by Christ (Jerusalem = Church, founded at Jerusalem on Sion); (3) anagogically, about the heavenly Church (Apocalypse 21), to which John alludes. This layered prophecy follows the prophetic method also used by Isaiah (chs. 60, 65-66).

LUCE SPLENDIDA FULGEBIS ET OMNES FINES TERRAE ADORABUNT TE — Tobias predicts the conversion of all nations to Christ through the bright light of the Gospel and the preaching of the Apostles, who are the light of the world. Nations converted to the Church adored her as Christ's spouse with deepest reverence and honor. Isaiah (49:23) prophesied the same: 'Kings shall be your nursing fathers and queens your nursing mothers; with their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you.'

ET TERRAM TUAM IN SANCTIFICATIONEM HABEBUNT — The nations will hold the land of Jerusalem as holy, sanctified by Christ's birth, life, passion, death, and resurrection, and by the preaching of the Apostles.

BEATUS ERO SI FUERINT RELIQUIAE SEMINIS MEI AD VIDENDAM CLARITATEM JERUSALEM — 'Blessed shall I be if there remain descendants of mine to see the glory of Jerusalem': both the literal glory that Cyrus would restore after 70 years, and the mystical greater glory that Christ would bring to the Church in this life and still more in the next.

PORTAE JERUSALEM EX SAPPHIRO ET SMARAGDO AEDIFICABUNTUR ET EX LAPIDE PRETIOSO OMNIS CIRCUITUS MURORUM EJUS — All from verse 19 onward refers properly to the heavenly Church, the Church triumphant; built from sapphire, emerald, and every precious stone, signifying figuratively the beauty, sweetness, majesty, brightness, and eternity of heavenly beatitude — as Lapide explains at Apocalypse 21. The Greek version is richer: 'It shall be built with sapphire and emerald, and its walls and towers with pure gold; and the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, carbuncle, and stone from Ophir.'

PER VICOS EJUS ALLELUIA CANTABITUR — 'Alleluia' in Hebrew means 'Praise the Lord.' It is the voice of praise, exultation, and jubilation which the blessed ceaselessly perform in heaven. Augustine (Serm. 154 De Temp.): 'The time of mourning signified by the forty days of Lent we both signify and endure. The time of rest, quiet, and kingdom signified by these days we signify by Alleluia, but do not yet possess. We breathe now toward the Alleluia. What is Alleluia? Praise God. But we do not yet have those praises. In the Church after the Resurrection the praises of God are celebrated, because for us there will be perpetual praise after our resurrection.'