Tobit — Chapter 7

QUAM SIMILIS EST JUVENIS ISTE CONSOBRINO MEO — Tobias the younger resembled his father Tobias the elder (his first cousin once removed), as is often the case. Raguel recognized the family likeness before learning who the youth was.

EX TRIBU NEPHTALI SUMUS — Note that it was Tobias the younger, not the Angel Raphael, who said this; he spoke on behalf of both since he thought Raphael was his fellow tribesman. If one insists both spoke, Raphael can be said to call himself a Nephtalite because he was the guardian or tutelary Angel of Naphtali, as Daniel (10) speaks of the Angel of the Persians and Greeks; or because he had assumed the form, person, and name of Azarias, who was a Nephtalite. Angels can be called our fellow-citizens in a spiritual sense (cf. Apoc. 19:10).

NOSTIS TOBIAM FRATREM MEUM — \"Brother\" here means cousin or kinsman, as already explained in ch. 1; Raguel was Tobias senior's paternal cousin.

ET MISIT SE RAGUEL — \"He threw himself upon him\" — the Greek says \"Raguel leapt for joy\" and embraced and kissed young Tobias on the neck with tears, saying \"Blessed are you, my son, for you are the son of a good and excellent man.\"

LACRYMATA SUNT — The Greek specifies they wept after hearing that Tobias the elder had lost his sight.

QUID EVENERIT SEPTEM VIRIS QUI INGRESSI SUNT AD EAM — Why did suitors continue to seek Sara when they saw the prior husbands slain? Lapide gives four reasons: (1) Sara's singular beauty; (2) she was the only heir of Raguel's enormous wealth; (3) some thought they had a right of kinship (Tobias being absent, to whom she was due by closer propinquity, v.14); (4) love maddened them — \"He is far too rash who will strive where he has seen another fall\" (Augustine). \"Happy is he whom another's dangers make cautious\" (proverb). Lesson: learn how unstable and treacherous all pleasure even of marriage is — these suitors were slain on their very wedding night; the proverb of Ben-Sira: \"The bride ascends to the bridal chamber and does not know what will befall her.\"

FECERUNT CONSCRIPTIONEM CONJUGII — They drew up an authentic marriage contract recording all conditions, promises, and agreements of both spouses, in writing (charta). The parents did not hesitate to give Sara despite the terror of seven deaths, moved by Raphael's bearing, gravity, and words promising safety, and inwardly moved by God to this union. Lapide notes this evidences the importance of the written marriage contract in the ancient Hebrew tradition.