II. Vesign and Contents. — The object of this book is to show that God, in his mysterious providence, perrilits sore calamities to befall the most |)ioiis and God-fearing in the very act of, and apparently for, obeying his com- mandments, but that he at the same time exercises a special care over them in the midst of their suffer- ings, vouchsafes them a happy issue out of all their trials, and holds them up to the world at large as pat- terns of patience nnder tribnlations, as such who have been deemed worthy of being tried and purified, and who have demonstrated that the etfectual and fervent priiyer of a " righteous man availoth much." The method adopted by the writer for working out this de- sign will be seen from the following analj'sis of the book itself.
Tobit, a Jew of the tribe of Naphtali, who strictly observed the law and remained faithful to the Temple- service at Jerusalem (i, 4-8), was carried captive to As- syria by Shalmaneser. While in captivity he exerted liimself to relieve his countrymen, which his favorable position at court {ayopa(TTi]c, i, 13, '• purveyor") enabled liim to do, and at this time he was rich enough to lend ten talents of silver to a countryman, (iabael of Kages, in Media. But when Sennacherib succeeded his father, Shalmaneser, the fortune of Tobit was changed. He was accused of burying the Jews whom the king had ))ut to death, and was only able to save himself, his wife, Amia, and his son Tobias, by flight. On the accession of Esar-haddon, he was allowed to return to Nineveh, at the intercession of his nephew, Achiacharns, who occu- jiied a high place in the king's household (i, 22); but his zeal for his countrymen brought him into a strange misfortune. As he lay one night in the court of his house, being unclean from having buried a Jew whom his son had found strangled in the market-place, spar- rows'"muted warm dung into his eyes," and he became blind. Being thus disabled, he was for a time support- ed by Achiacharus, and after his departure (read stto- pto^i], ii, 10) by the labor of his wife. On one occasion he falsely accused her of stealing a kid which had been added to her wages, and in return she reproached him with the miserable issue of all his righteous deeds. Grieved by her taunts, he prayed to God for help ; and it hapjiened that on the same day Sara, his kinswoman (vi, 10, 11), the only daughter of Kaguel, also sought help from God against the reproaches of her father's household. For seven young men wedded to her had perished on their marriage-night by the power of the evil spirit Asmodajus (q. v.) ; and she thought that she should -'bring her father's old age with sorrow unto the grave" (iii, 10). So Raphael was sent to deliver both from their troubles. In the meantime Tobit called to
mind the money which he had lent to Gabael, and de- spatched Tobias, with many wise counsels, to reclaim it (ch. iv). On this Raphael (under the form of a kins- man, Azarias) offered himself as a guide to Tobias on his journey to Media, and they " went forth both, and tlie young man's dog loith them," and Anna was comforted for the absence of lier son (ch. v). When tliey reached the Tigris, Tobias was commanded by Raphael to take " the heart, and liver, and gall" of " a tish which leaped out of the river and would have devoured him," and in- structed how to use the tirst two against Asmodanis, for Sara, Raphael said, was appointed to be his wife (ch.vi). So when they reached Ecbatana, they were entertained by Raguel, and, in accordance with the words of the an- gel, Sara was given to Tobias in marriage that night, and Asmodffius was " driven to the utmost parts of Egypt," where "the angel bound him" (ch, vii, viii). After this Raphael recovered the loan from Gabael (ch. ix), and Tobias then returned with Sara and half her father's goods to Nineveh (ch. x). Tobit, informed by Anna of their son's approach, hastened to meet liim. Tobias, by the command of the angel, applied the fish's gall to his father's eyes and restored his sight (ch. xi). After this Raphael, addressing to both words of good counsel, revealed himself, and " they saw him no more" (ch. xii). On this Tobit expressed his gratitude in a fine psalm (ch. xiii); and he lived to see the long pros- perity of his son (xiv, 1, 2). After his death Tobias, according to his instruction, returned to Ecbatana. and " before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineveh," of which "Jonas the prophet spake" (xiv, 15,4).
III. historical and Religious Character of the Booh. — 1. There are three theories about the reality of this story.
(1.) The o()inion that this book records proper his- tory was universally held by the Christian Church up to the time of the Reformation, and has even since been maintained by bishop (iray (.4 Key to the 0. T. p. G20. etc., ed. 1857), Welte (Einleit. p. 84 sq.), Scholz {Eiti- leit. ii, 594 sq.), and most Roman Catholic writers. In support of this opinion may be urged, a. The minute accoimt which it gives of Tobit's tribe, his pedigree, place of birth, the time in which he lived, his family, his condition and employment, his captivity, poverty, blindness, recovery, age, death, and place of burial (i, 1, 13,20,21 ; ii, 10; xi, 13; xiv, 11-13); b. The exactness of the historical remarks about the Assyrian kings (i,2, 13, 15, 21), without deriving the names 'ErefiiryaapoQ ( = Shalmaneser) and 'S.ax^pSovoQ from the Old Test., as well as the correctness of the geographical fioints (i, 14; ii, 21; iii. 7; vi, 1, 11); c. Tiie impossibility of* tracing rhe main features of the narrative to any Old- Test, prototype, and of explaining them on the hypoth- esis of fiction. The obscure place Thisbe is given as Tobit's place of birth (i, 2), and manj' minute particu- lars of his life are described which have in themselves nothing whatever to do with the plot, and which can only be accoLUited for on the reality of the events. On the other hand, Bertholdt (Einleit. § 579) has given a summary of alleged errors in detail (e. g. i, 1, 2, "Naph- tali," comp. with 2 Kings xv, 29; vi, 9, Rages, said to have been founded by Sel. Nicator), but the question turns rather upon the general comjilexion of the historv than upon minute objections, which are often captious and rarely satisfactory (comp. WWle, L}inhit. p. 84-94).