Two travelers, exiles from Naphtali living as captives in Nineveh, arrive at a courtyard gate in the city of Ecbatana. They are brought at once to the house of Raguel, a relative. He greets them with warmth, saying, "You have come generously and in health!" and brings them into his home. His wife, Edna, studies the younger traveler, noting, "This young man looks so much like my relative Tobit!" The travelers confirm they know Tobit, and Edna presses, "Is he well?" They reply, "He is alive and well," and the young man, Tobias, adds, "He is my father." The words ignite the room; Raguel "jumped up and kissed him" and "began to cry." He blesses the young man, grieving the "terrible tragedy that such a righteous and charitable man has been made blind!" Raguel's wife and their daughter, Sarah, join him in weeping, filling the home with the shared sorrow and sudden joy of rediscovered kinship.

Reflections

The divine presence in this tense household is felt primarily through human appeals and reliance on sacred tradition. God is perceived as the ultimate arbiter of destiny and the giver of the Law. Raguel invokes "the Lord of heaven" to grant "success," "mercy," and "peace" upon the new couple, acknowledging that human effort alone is insufficient against the darkness that haunts his daughter. The "ruling of the scroll from Moses" is not just a cultural guideline; it is viewed as the earthly expression of a heavenly decree. Agency is deferred to this higher power: "it has been decided in heaven that she be given to you." In this space of fear and uncertainty, the characters cling to the belief that God is a God of order, acting through established covenant laws, and perhaps, a provider of "joy in place of your pain."

This encounter reveals a profoundly human mixture of joy and dread. The reunion is saturated with tears: tears of recognition for kinship, tears of sorrow for Tobit's blindness, and tears of fear from Edna and Sarah over the impending marriage. Life is marked by sudden, overlapping obligations. After the customary bath, Tobias, driven by a sense of duty, makes an immediate, almost jarring demand for marriage. Raguel is caught between his obligation as "the nearest relative" and his terror as a father; he must "tell you the truth" about the seven deceased husbands. This is not a romantic celebration but a transaction steeped in fear and religious necessity, a stark picture of people trying to do the right thing under the shadow of an inexplicable, repeating tragedy.

The passage illustrates the difficult intersection of obedience and fear. Tobias refuses to "eat or drink here until you resolve the matters that have to do with me," demonstrating a conviction that duty must precede comfort. Raguel, despite the devastating risk, chooses to honor the "ruling written in the scroll from Moses" rather than withhold his daughter in fear. Their actions suggest that faithfulness is not the absence of terror but the willingness to proceed with duty despite it. In our own lives, we are often confronted by choices where the right path is also the one that seems most fraught with potential loss. This story models a difficult integrity: acknowledging the danger, speaking the hard truth, and upholding commitments, all while placing the unknown outcome in the hands of a higher power.