Complete Works of Saint Jerome, Vol. X

mine: May the Lord of heaven give you joy for the weariness you have endured.

[Chap. VIII.] But after they had dined, they brought the young man in to her. Tobias, therefore, mindful of the angel’s words, took out of his bag a part of the liver, and placed it upon burning coals. Then Raphael the angel took the demon, and bound it in the desert of upper Egypt. Then Tobias exhorted the virgin, and said to her: Sarah, arise, and let us pray to God today, and tomorrow, and the day after; for we are joined to God during these three nights; and when the third night is passed, we will be in our wedlock. For we are children of the saints, and we cannot be joined together in the way of the nations who know not God.

Rising up together, they both prayed earnestly that health might be granted to them. And Tobias said: Lord God of our fathers, may the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the fountains, and the rivers, and all your creatures that are in them, bless you. You made Adam of the slime of the earth, and gave him Eve as a helper. And now, Lord, you know that it is not for the sake of lust that I take my kinswoman as my wife, but solely for the love of posterity, in which your name may be blessed for ever and ever. Sarah also said 1: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, and let us both grow old together in health.

And it came to pass about the time of the cock-crow, Raguel ordered his servants to be summoned, and they went out with him together to dig a grave. For he was saying: Lest perhaps 2 it should happen to him in the same way as it did to those other seven men who had entered to her. And when they had prepared the pit, Raguel returned to his wife, and said to her: Send one of your maids, and let her see if he is dead, so that I may bury him before the day breaks. And she sent one of her maids. She, having entered the bedroom, found them safe and sound, sleeping together. And having returned, she announced the good news: and they blessed the Lord, namely Raguel and Anna his wife, and said: We bless you, O Lord God of Israel, because it did not happen as we thought 3. For you have performed your mercy with us, and have excluded from us the enemy who was pursuing us. You have had mercy, moreover, on two only children. Make them, O Lord, bless you more fully 4: and to offer to you a sacrifice of your praise and of their health, so that the whole assembly of nations may know that you are the only God in the whole earth. And immediately Raguel commanded his servants to fill in the pit, which they had made, before it became light. To his wife, however, he said that she should arrange the banquet, and prepare

1 Palatine MS with the Vulgate, Then Sarah said, etc.

2 The Palatine MS omits the word perhaps.

3 The same MS adds here to us.

4 The Palatine MS reads In more fully. A little later, for assembly, which our and all other books restore, Martianay read of the assembly erroneously.

5 Our MSS: I beseech you to take, without you, etc.

6 One Palatine MS: How Raguel adjured me.

everything that was necessary as food for those making a journey. He also had two fat cows and four rams killed, and a feast prepared for all his neighbors and all his friends. And Raguel adjured Tobias to stay with him for two weeks. Moreover, of all that Raguel possessed, he gave half to Tobias: and he drew up [ Alternative addition: this ] a document, so that the half portion, which remained after their death, should come into the ownership of Tobias.

[Chap. IX.] Then Tobias called the angel to him, whom he indeed thought to be a man, and said to him: Brother Azarias, I ask you to listen to my words.

If I were to deliver myself to you as a servant, I would not be worthy of your providence. Nevertheless, I beseech you to take 5 for yourself animals or services, and go to Gabelus in Rages, a city of the Medes, and return to him his bond, and receive from him the money, and ask him to come to my wedding. For you yourself know that my father is counting the days; if I delay by even one day, his soul is saddened. And you certainly see how Raguel has adjured me 6, whose adjuration I cannot disregard.

Then Raphael, taking four of Raguel’s servants and two camels, went to Rages, the city of the Medes 7: and finding Gabelus, he returned to him his bond, and received from him all the money, and told him about Tobias, the son of Tobias, all that had happened 8: and he made him come with him to the wedding.

And when he had entered the house of Raguel, he found Tobias reclining: and leaping up, they kissed one another: and Gabelus wept 9, and blessed God, and said: May the God of Israel bless you, because you are the son of a very good man, and a just one, and one who fears God and performs alms-deeds: and may a blessing be said upon your wife, and upon your parents, and may you see your children, and the children of your children, even to the third and fourth generation: and may your seed 10 be blessed by the God of Israel, who reigns for ever and ever. And when all had said, Amen, they went to the banquet: but they celebrated the wedding feast also with the fear of the Lord.

[Chap. X.] But when Tobias made delays, on account of the wedding, his father Tobias was anxious, saying: Why do you think my son is delayed, or why has he been detained there? Do you think Gabelus is dead, and no one will return the money to him? Then he began to be exceedingly saddened, and Anna his wife with him: and they both began to weep together: for the reason that their son did not return to them on the appointed day. He was weeping

7 The same MS omits here the word city, and shortly after has: And coming to Gabelus, he gave him the bond for, And finding Gabelus, etc.

8 The same MS: What things happened to him.

9 The same MS again has more: Gabelus therefore wept, then, May the Lord God bless you, etc.

10 For seed, the Palatine MS has name.