The parents lament the long absence of their son Tobias. He sets out to return.
1
In truth, when Tobias was delayed because of the marriage celebration, his father Tobit was worried, saying: “Why do you think my son is delayed, or why has he been detained there?
2
Do you think that Gabael has died, and that no one will repay him the money?”
3
And so he began to be exceedingly sad, both he and his wife Anna with him. And they both began to weep together, because their son did not at least return to them on the appointed day.
4
But his mother wept inconsolable tears, and also said: “Woe, woe to me, O my son. Why did we send you to journey far away, you: the light of our eyes, the staff of our old age, the solace of our life, the hope of our posterity?
5
Having all things together as one in you, we ought not to have dismissed you from us.”
6
And Tobit was saying to her: “Be calm, and do not be troubled. Our son is safe. That man, with whom we sent him, is faithful enough.”
7
Yet she was by no means able to be consoled. But, leaping up every day, she looked all round, and traveled around all the ways, by which there seemed any hope that he might return, so that she might possibly see him coming from afar.
8
In truth, Raguel said to his son-in-law, “Remain here, and I will send a message of your health to your father Tobit.”
9
And Tobias said to him, “I know that my father and my mother have now counted the days, and their spirit must be tortured within them.”
10
And when Raguel had repeatedly petitioned Tobias, and he was by no means willing to listen to him, he delivered Sarah to him, and half of all his substance: with men and women servants, with sheep, camels, and cows, and with much money. And he dismissed him away, in safety and gladness, from him,
11
saying: “May the holy Angel of the Lord be with your journey, and may he lead you through unharmed, and may you discover that all is right concerning your parents, and may my eyes see your sons before I die.”
12
And the parents, taking hold of their daughter, kissed her and let her go:
13
admonishing her to honor her father-in-law, to love her husband, to guide the family, to govern the household, and to behave irreproachably herself.(a)
Footnotes