Tobit — Chapter 14

ET POSTQUAM ILLUMINATUS EST TOBIAS VIXIT ANNIS QUADRAGINTA DUOBUS — Tobias the elder lived 42 years after his sight was restored (from age 60 to 102 as the Vulgate states), and saw his grandchildren's children — four generations of descendants.

COMPLETIS ITAQUE ANNIS CENTUM DUOBUS SEPULTUS EST HONORIFICE IN NINIVE — Tobias was buried honorably in Nineveh, the city of his exile. Saints should live and die in the world as if in exile, not caring where they die or are buried; as Ovid: 'Every soil is the brave man's homeland, as the sea is the fishes' home'; Thomas More (Utopia): 'From anywhere the road to heaven is of equal length.' The example of Jacob who wished to be buried in Canaan with his fathers was a special prophetic sign of the promised land; but this is not binding on all saints.

QUINQUAGINTA NAMQUE ET SEX ANNORUM LUMEN OCULORUM AMISIT SEXAGENARIUS VERO RECEPIT — Tobias lost his sight at age 56 (Lapide's calculation: taken to Assyria at age 39 in Hezekiah's 6th year; blinded in Hezekiah's 25th year at age 46 — Lapide says 56, explaining on the basis of other chronological data) and recovered it at 60 in the 21st year of Hezekiah; he then lived 2 more years under Hezekiah and 40 under Manasseh, dying in Manasseh's 40th year. The Greek gives him different figures (158 years total, 8 years of blindness), but the canonical Latin Vulgate (per Trent) is to be followed over the Greek.

IN HORA AUTEM MORTIS SUAE VOCAVIT AD SE TOBIAM FILIUM SUUM ET SEPTEM JUVENES FILIOS EJUS — As dying men often prophesy, Tobias gave his son final counsels and a prophecy of Nineveh's fall and Jerusalem's glory. Like Isaac (Gen. 27), Jacob (Gen. 49), and Moses (Deut. 31). Plato held that the soul near death elevates toward divine things and can foresee the future by natural instinct and prognostic signs, as birds foresee storms. Cicero (De Divin. I): 'As death approaches, the soul is far more divine; for even those afflicted by grave illness see death approaching, and images of the dead present themselves, and they are most concerned for their reputation; those who have lived otherwise repent most at that point.' Gregory (IV Dialog. 25): 'Sometimes the very power of souls by its subtlety foresees something; sometimes souls about to leave the body know the future through divine revelation; sometimes, already drawing near to departing the body, they send the incorporeal eye of the mind into the secrets of heaven by divine inspiration.' Tobias's prophecy was certainly from divine inspiration, not natural signs.

PROPE ERIT INTERITUS NINIVE NON ENIM EXCIDIT VERBUM DOMINI — Nineveh was destroyed multiple times: (1) by Arbaces the Mede before Tobias under King Ozias of Judah; (2) around the end of Hezekiah's reign, after Sennacherib's death; (3) by Cyaxares the Mede and Nabuchadnezzar the Elder (the final and fullest destruction, which Nahum also predicted). The word of God spoken through Jonah would not fail: though the Ninevites repented at Jonah's preaching and escaped that judgment, they soon relapsed and suffered the destruction promised by both Jonah and Nahum. The Greek adds: 'Go to Media, my son, for I believe what Jonah the prophet said about Nineveh, that it will be overthrown; in Media there will be more peace for a time.'

OMNIS AUTEM DESERTA TERRA EJUS REPLEBITUR ET DOMUS DEI QUAE IN EA INCENSA EST ITERUM AEDIFICABITUR — Israel's depopulated land will be refilled and God's house (which will be burned — Tobias prophesies of the future as if already past) will be rebuilt after 70 years of Babylonian captivity. The Greek (using the future tense throughout) adds: 'God will again show mercy on them and bring them back to the land; they will build the house of God, not as the first was, until the times of the age are fulfilled. And after this they shall return from captivity and build Jerusalem honorably, and the house of God shall be built in it gloriously for all generations of the age, as the prophets have spoken of it; and all nations shall turn truly to fear the Lord God, and shall bury their idols.'

ET GAUDEBUNT IN EA REGES OMNES TERRAE ADORANTES REGEM ISRAEL — All the kings of the earth will rejoice in Jerusalem, adoring the King of Israel — meaning Christ. For after the return from captivity no king of Israel was ever adored by all kings of the earth; but Christ has been served and adored by all nations and kings.

SERVITE DOMINO IN VERITATE — Serve the Lord in truth — truly, sincerely, with a right, complete, undivided, whole heart. Not with a false, feigned, halfhearted, or divided heart — giving half to God and half to the devil, to idols, or to covetousness. Truth here is opposed to falsehood, superstition, hypocrisy, fiction, and simulation (Serarius).

UT FACIANT JUSTITIAS ET ELEEMOSYNAS UT SINT MEMORES DEI ET BENEDICANT EUM — That they may do just and pious works and always be mindful of God. The Greek gives here the remarkable example of Achiacharus (Akikar) and Manasses: both were cast into mortal danger by the wicked Aman (an impious and ungrateful man, not the Aman of Esther) who had been raised and nurtured by Achiacharus; but both were saved by their piety and almsgiving, while Aman himself fell into the trap he had set and perished. 'He fell into the pit he made' (Ps. 7:16). Lapide notes the identity of this Manasses is disputed; Salianus suggests it may be the husband of Judith, since the times correspond, but rejects this as Judith lived in Bethulia of Judea, not in Nineveh.

TOBIAS ABSCESSIT EX NINIVE CUM UXORE SUA ET FILIIS ET FILIORUM FILIIS ET REVERSUS EST AD SOCEROS SUOS — Tobias the younger left Nineveh to escape its impending destruction, going to his father-in-law Raguel in Ecbatana. Lapide marvels at God's provident care for Tobias: first (under Hezekiah) God directed him to Media through Raphael, to bring Sara and the money home before Ecbatana was ravaged; then, when Ecbatana flourished again but Nineveh was about to fall, God directed him back to Ecbatana so he could care for Raguel in his old age, close his eyes in death, and receive his full inheritance. Lapide: 'If God took such care for his friends in temporal goods, how much more will He provide for them in spiritual, heavenly, and eternal goods?'

ET COMPLETIS ANNIS NONAGINTA NOVEM IN TIMORE DOMINI CUM GAUDIO SEPELIERUNT EUM — Tobias the younger died at age 99 (Vulgate; the Greek gives 127), and was buried with joy by his children and grandchildren — joyfully, because though they mourned his death, they rejoiced that he had ended such a long, fortunate, holy, and peaceful life; for a nearly centenarian man had nothing further to await in this world but labor and sorrow. Lapide: 'To die in ripe, honored, peaceful, prosperous, pious, and holy old age is a great — the final — good of this life.' He died in Ecbatana in the 16th year of King Josias of Judah. The Greek adds that he heard before his death the destruction of Nineveh — captured by Nabuchadnezzar and Assuerus (Cyaxares) — and rejoiced. Lapide discusses the lengthy chronological question of whether Tobias could have witnessed Nineveh's fall, concluding from the Vulgate he most probably died before it.

OMNIS AUTEM COGNATIO EJUS ET OMNIS GENERATIO EJUS IN BONA VITA ET IN SANCTA CONVERSATIONE PERMANSIT — All his kindred and all his progeny remained in good life and holy conduct, so that they were acceptable both to God and to men, and to all who dwelt on the earth. This is the inheritance left to those who serve God faithfully: not only eternal life for themselves, but a blessed tradition of faith, virtue, and divine favor for their descendants.