Tobit 5–6

Chapter 5

Then Tobias answered his father, and said: I will do all things, father, which thou hast commanded me.

²But how I shall get this money, I cannot tell; he knoweth not me, and I know not him: what token shall I give him? nor did I ever know the way which leadeth thither.

³Then his father answered him, and said: I have a note of his hand with me, which when thou shalt shew him, he will presently pay it.

⁴But go now, and seek thee out some faithful man, to go with thee for his hire: that thou mayst receive it, while I yet live.

⁵Then Tobias going forth, found a beautiful young man, standing girded, and as it were ready to walk.

⁶And not knowing that he was an angel of God, he saluted him, and said: From whence art thou, good young man?

⁷But he answered: Of the children of Israel. And Tobias said to him: Knowest thou the way that leadeth to the country of the Medes?

⁸And he answered: I know it: and I have often walked through all the ways thereof, and I have abode with Gabelus our brother, who dwelleth at Rages a city of the Medes, which is situate in the mount of Ecbatana.

⁹And Tobias said to him: Stay for me, I beseech thee, till I tell these same things to my father.

¹⁰Then Tobias going in told all these things to his father. Upon which his father being in admiration, desired that he would come in unto him.

¹¹So going in he saluted him, and said: Joy be to thee always.

¹²And Tobias said: What manner of joy shall be to me, who sit in darkness and see not the light of heaven?

¹³And the young man said to him: Be of good courage, thy cure from God is at hand.

¹⁴And Tobias said to him: Canst thou conduct my son to Gabelus at Rages, a city of the Medes? and when thou shalt return, I will pay thee thy hire.

¹⁵And the angel said to him: I will conduct him thither, and bring him back to thee.

¹⁶And Tobias said to him: I pray thee, tell me, of what family, or what tribe art thou?

¹⁷And Raphael the angel answered: Dost thou seek the family of him thou hirest, or the hired servant himself to go with thy son?

¹⁸But lest I should make thee uneasy, I am Azarias the son of the great Ananias.

¹⁹And Tobias answered: Thou art of a great family. But I pray thee be not angry that I desired to know thy family.

²⁰And the angel said to him: I will lead thy son safe, and bring him to thee again safe.

²¹And Tobias answering, said: May you have a good journey, and God be with you in your way, and his angel accompany you.

²²Then all things being ready, that were to be carried in their journey, Tobias bade his father and his mother farewell, and they set out both together.

²³And when they were departed, his mother began to weep, and to say: Thou hast taken the staff of our old age, and sent him away from us.

²⁴I wish the money for which thou hast sent him, had never been.

²⁵For our poverty was sufficient for us, that we might account it as riches, that we saw our son.

²⁶And Tobias said to her: Weep not, our son will arrive thither safe, and will return safe to us, and thy eyes shall see him.

²⁷For I believe that the good angel of God doth accompany him, and doth order all things well that are done about him, so that he shall return to us with joy.

²⁸At these words his mother ceased weeping, and held her peace.

Chapter 6

And Tobias went forward, and the dog followed him, and he lodged the first night by the river of Tigris.

²And he went out to wash his feet, and behold a monstrous fish came up to devour him.

³And Tobias being afraid of him, cried out with a loud voice, saying: Sir, he cometh upon me.

⁴And the angel said to him: Take him by the gill, and draw him to thee. And when he had done so, he drew him out upon the land, and he began to pant before his feet.

⁵Then the angel said to him: Take out the entrails of this fish, and lay up his heart, and his gall, and his liver for thee: for these are necessary for useful medicines.

⁶And when he had done so, he roasted the flesh thereof, and they took it with them in the way: the rest they salted as much as might serve them, till they came to Rages the city of the Medes.

⁷Then Tobias asked the angel, and said to him: I beseech thee, brother Azarias, tell me what remedies are these things good for, which thou hast bid me keep of the fish?

⁸And the angel, answering, said to him: If thou put a little piece of its heart upon coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kind of devils, either from man or from woman, so that they come no more to them.

⁹And the gall is good for anointing the eyes, in which there is a white speck, and they shall be cured.

¹⁰And Tobias said to him: Where wilt thou that we lodge?

¹¹And the angel answering, said: Here is one whose name is Raguel, a near kinsman of thy tribe, and he hath a daughter named Sara, but he hath no son nor any other daughter beside her.

¹²All his substance is due to thee, and thou must take her to wife.

¹³Ask her therefore of her father, and he will give her thee to wife.

¹⁴Then Tobias answered, and said: I hear that she hath been given to seven husbands, and they all died: moreover I have heard, that a devil killed them.

¹⁵Now I am afraid, lest the same thing should happen to me also: and whereas I am the only child of my parents, I should bring down their old age with sorrow to hell.

¹⁶Then the angel Raphael said to him: Hear me, and I will shew thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail.

¹⁷For they who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power.

¹⁸But thou when thou shalt take her, go into the chamber, and for three days keep thyself continent from her, and give thyself to nothing else but to prayers with her.

¹⁹And on that night lay the liver of the fish on the fire, and the devil shall be driven away.

²⁰But the second night thou shalt be admitted into the society of the holy Patriarchs.

²¹And the third night thou shalt obtain a blessing that sound children may be born of you.

²²And when the third night is past, thou shalt take the virgin with the fear of the Lord, moved rather for love of children than for lust, that in the seed of Abraham thou mayst obtain a blessing in children.