Chapter Eleven

Tobias’ Arrival in Nineveh

1–3. Preparation to meet the parents. 4–9. The joyful meeting of Tobit and Anna with their son. 10–14. Tobit’s recovery of sight. 15–18. Tobit meets Sarah and a new seven-day wedding celebration in Nineveh.

Tobit 11:1. And Raphael said to Tobias: You know, brother, the condition in which you left your father; Tobit 11:2. Let us go ahead before your wife and prepare lodging; Tobit 11:3. And do you take in your hand the gall of the fish. And they departed; the dog also ran along after them. 1–3. In the Sinaiticus Codex of the LXX, verse 1 names the locality to which the travelers—Raphael and Tobias with Sarah—were approaching on the way to Nineveh: εις Κασερείν, ή έστιν κατέναντι Νινευή, but in another manuscript εις Καισαρειαν. Certainly, one cannot see in this any of the Caesareas, which appeared only in the time of Roman rule. Similarly, the name of Charan placed in the Vulgate, verse 1, cannot be the Mesopotamian city of Haran known from the history of Abraham (Gen 11:31, cf. Commentary Bible v. I), southeast of the city of Edessa, which later entered the Assyrian kingdom (2 Kgs 19:12; Commentary Bible, v. II), since the latter Haran lay in the northwest of Mesopotamia, and therefore west of the Tigris River, whereas the locality mentioned in the book of Tobit (11:1) lay in any case to the east of the Tigris (Nineveh itself lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and Ecbatana and Rages in Media were even further east). Without doubt, there is meant some locality unknown to the translators of the book (perhaps Kisiri on the canal of the Kosera River—Husur, see in Prof. Drozdov, p. 507–508).

Tobit 11:4. Meanwhile Anna sat watching on the road for her son, Tobit 11:5. And when she saw him coming, she said to his father: Behold, your son comes, and the man who went with him. Tobit 11:6. Raphael said: I know, Tobias, that your father’s eyes will be opened; Tobit 11:7. You only anoint his eyes with the gall, and he, feeling the burning, will rub them, and the white spots will fall away, and he will see you. Tobit 11:8. Anna, running to him, threw herself on his neck and said to him: I have seen you, my child, and now I can die. And both wept. Tobit 11:9. And Tobit went to the door and stumbled, but his son ran to him and supported his father, Tobit 11:10. And applied the gall to his father’s eyes and said: Take courage, my father! Tobit 11:11. His eyes became dimmed, and he rubbed them, 6–7, 9–11. The gall, which was to serve as a healing remedy for Tobit’s sight (cf. 6:9), could be preserved by Tobias either in powder form, in which form, it must be supposed, he used it for burning the heart and liver of the fish (6:7; 8:2–3), or else in the form of an ointment with the addition of other substances. The very possibility of the healing action of gall on sight, apart from the gracious, miraculous character of Tobit’s recovery of sight, can be confirmed by the data of ancient and modern medicine (see in Prof. Drozdov, p. 353–360).

Tobit 11:12. And the white spots fell from the edges of his eyes. Seeing his son, he fell on his neck Tobit 11:13. And wept and said: Blessed are You, God, and blessed be Your name forever, and blessed are all Your holy Angels! Tobit 11:14. Because You have chastened me and pitied me. Behold, I see my son Tobias. And his son entered in gladly and recounted to his father the great deeds that had happened to him in Media. Tobit 11:15. And Tobit went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gate of Nineveh, rejoicing and blessing God. Those who saw that he could see were amazed. Tobit 11:16. And Tobit confessed before them that God had shown him mercy. When Tobit approached Sarah, his daughter-in-law, he blessed her and said: Welcome, daughter! Blessed be the God who has brought you to us, and blessed be your father and your mother! Rejoiced all his brothers in Nineveh. 13–16. The gratitude and hymn of praise to God uttered by Tobit has an exalted pious, truly theocratic tone and character. With firm faith in God the Providence, here (verse 13) is expressed the faith of the Old Testament righteous in the Angels and prayerful glorification of them, in connection, probably, with thought or presaging of the kindness shown to Tobias by the Angel Raphael.

Tobit 11:17. And Ahikar and Nasbas, his nephew, came; 11:17. Together with Ahikar, of whom there was mention in 1:21–22, there is mentioned here a certain Νασβάς (according to the Sinaiticus Codex Ναβάδ), undoubtedly the same person as Νάδάβ verse 10, chapter 14, the nephew of Ahikar.

Tobit 11:18. And they celebrated the wedding of Tobias joyfully for seven days. Subscribe to our Telegram channel