Tobit 8:1
Postquam vero cenaverunt, introduxerunt iuvenem ad eam.
After they had finished dinner, they brought the young man in to her.
Translator's Introduction
What This Chapter Is About
Tobias enters the bridal chamber, burns the fish's heart and liver to drive away the demon Asmodeus, and prays with Sarah before consummating the marriage. Raguel, expecting the worst, secretly digs a grave for Tobias — then sends a maid to check and discovers both are alive and sleeping peacefully. Raguel praises God and fills in the grave before dawn.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
This is the theological heart of the book. The wedding night prayer of Tobias and Sarah became the single most influential text on marriage in Catholic tradition — used in the Nuptial Mass for centuries. The contrast between the demon-haunted previous marriages (entered in lust) and this one (entered in prayer and continence) makes the chapter a treatise on holy matrimony. The darkly comic detail of Raguel digging a grave while the couple prays is narrative genius.
Translation Friction
The exorcism scene — burning fish organs to produce demon-repelling smoke — sits at the intersection of folk magic and theology. Jerome renders it straightforwardly. The binding of Asmodeus 'in the upper regions of Egypt' by Raphael follows a demonological geography unfamiliar to modern readers. The Vulgate is notably restrained about the consummation itself.
Connections
The wedding prayer echoes Genesis 2:18 ('It is not good for man to be alone'). The binding of Asmodeus prefigures the binding of Satan in Revelation 20:2. Raguel's grave-digging parallels Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac — expecting death, receiving life. The prayer was incorporated into the Catholic Rite of Marriage.
Tobit 8:2
Tobias vero memor sermonis angeli protulit de cassidili suo partem iecoris piscis posuitque eam super carbones vivos.
Tobias, remembering the angel's words, took from his bag a piece of the fish's liver and placed it on live coals.
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
super carbones vivos
"on live coals"
The burning produces the smoke that drives out the demon — the material instrument serves a spiritual purpose under angelic direction.
Translator Notes
- Tobias acts on faith in Raphael's instructions. The 'cassidile' (bag/pouch) is a homely detail — the instrument of exorcism has been carried in a traveler's pack.
Tobit 8:3
Tunc Raphael angelus adprehendit daemonium et religavit illud in deserto superioris Aegypti.
Then the angel Raphael seized the demon and bound it in the desert of upper Egypt.
Notes & Key Terms 2 terms
Key Terms
religavit
"bound"
The binding of demons is a consistent biblical motif — from the abyss imagery in Jude 6 to the binding of Satan in Revelation 20. Raphael exercises divine authority over the demonic.
deserto superioris Aegypti
"the desert of upper Egypt"
A liminal, desolate place associated with demons in Jewish cosmology — parallel to the 'waterless places' Jesus mentions in Matthew 12:43.
Translator Notes
- The binding of Asmodeus is swift and decisive — Raphael acts in his angelic authority while the humans see only the smoke. Upper Egypt (the Thebaid) was associated in Jewish tradition with desolate, demon-haunted places.
Tobit 8:4
Tunc hortatus est Tobias virginem dixitque ei: Sarra, exsurge et deprecemur Deum hodie et cras et secundum cras, quia his tribus noctibus Deo iungimur; tertia autem transacta nocte, in nostro erimus coniugio.
Then Tobias encouraged the young woman and said to her: 'Sarah, rise, and let us pray to God today and tomorrow and the day after, because for these three nights we are joined to God. And when the third night is past, we will be in our own marriage.
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
Deo iungimur
"we are joined to God"
Before being joined to each other, they are joined to God — the divine relationship precedes and sanctifies the human one.
Translator Notes
- This is the moment where theory becomes practice — Tobias enacts Raphael's instruction from chapter 6. The three nights of prayer before consummation became known as the 'Tobias Nights' in medieval Catholic practice.
Tobit 8:5
Filii quippe sanctorum sumus, et non possumus ita coniungi sicut gentes quae ignorant Deum.
For we are children of the saints, and we cannot be joined together like pagans who do not know God.'
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
filii sanctorum
"children of the saints"
The same phrase Tobit used to rebuke his critics — now spoken by his son in the most intimate moment of his life. Covenant identity shapes even the bedroom.
Translator Notes
- Tobias echoes his father's words from 2:19 — 'we are children of the saints.' The distinction between covenant marriage and pagan coupling is the chapter's organizing principle.
Tobit 8:6
Surgentes autem pariter instanter orabant ambo simul ut sanitas daretur eis.
Rising together, they both prayed earnestly that health might be given to them.
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
sanitas
"health"
Sanitas here means wholeness — physical safety, spiritual protection, and marital blessing combined.
Tobit 8:7
Dixitque Tobias: Domine Deus patrum nostrorum, benedicant te caeli et terrae maresque et fontes et flumina et omnes creaturae tuae quae in eis sunt.
And Tobias said: 'Lord God of our fathers, may the heavens and the earth and the seas and the springs and the rivers and all your creatures that are in them bless you.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
- The prayer opens with cosmic praise — a creation canticle that summons all nature to bless God before the personal petition begins. This echoes the Benedicite (Dan 3:52-90) and anticipates Francis of Assisi's Canticle.
Tobit 8:8
Tu fecisti Adam de limo terrae dedistique ei adiutorium Hevam.
You made Adam from the clay of the earth and gave him Eve as his helper.
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
adiutorium
"helper"
From Genesis 2:18 — 'ezer kenegdo' in Hebrew, 'adiutorium' in Jerome's Latin. The term implies complementary strength, not subordination.
Tobit 8:9
Et nunc, Domine, tu scis quia non luxuriae causa accipio sororem meam coniugem sed sola posteritatis dilectione, in qua benedicatur nomen tuum in saecula saeculorum.
And now, Lord, you know that I take my sister as wife not out of lust but solely out of love for posterity, in which your name may be blessed forever and ever.'
Notes & Key Terms 3 terms
Key Terms
non luxuriae causa
"not out of lust"
The explicit denial of luxuria as motive for marriage became the cornerstone of Catholic sexual ethics — legitimate desire is ordered toward children and sanctification, not self-gratification.
posteritatis dilectione
"love for posterity"
Love of offspring as the organizing purpose of marriage — this formulation influenced Augustine, Aquinas, and the 1917 Code of Canon Law.
sororem meam
"my sister"
A term of endearment and kinship, not literal siblinghood — echoing Song of Songs 4:9 ('my sister, my bride').
Translator Notes
- This is the prayer's theological summit — and the verse most frequently cited in Catholic marriage theology. Tobias explicitly disclaims lust ('luxuria') and declares procreation ('posteritas') as his motive, framed as service to God's name. This verse shaped the Catholic teaching on the primary end of marriage for over a millennium.
Tobit 8:10
Dixit quoque Sarra: Miserere nobis, Domine, miserere nobis, et consenescamus ambo pariter sani.
And Sarah said: 'Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, and let us both grow old together in health.'
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
consenescamus ambo pariter sani
"let us both grow old together in health"
A prayer for ordinary married life — longevity, health, companionship. The extraordinary suffering of both has taught them to value the ordinary.
Translator Notes
- Sarah's prayer is breathtakingly simple after her long suffering — just mercy and time together. After seven dead husbands, her deepest desire is simply to grow old with this one.
Tobit 8:11
Et factum est circa pullorum cantum, iussit Raguel venire servos suos et abierunt ut foderent sepulcrum.
Around cockcrow, Raguel ordered his servants to come and they went out to dig a grave.
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
pullorum cantum
"cockcrow"
The same hour that will later mark Peter's denial (Mark 14:72) — here it marks the anxious vigil of a father expecting death.
Translator Notes
- The darkest comedy in Scripture — while the couple prays, the father-in-law digs a grave. Raguel's pessimism is entirely reasonable given his experience, which makes the eventual joy all the more powerful.
Tobit 8:12
Dicebat enim: Ne forte simili modo evenerit ei quo et ceteris septem viris qui sunt ingressi ad eam.
For he said: 'Perhaps the same thing has happened to him that happened to the other seven men who went in to her.'
Tobit 8:13
Cumque parassent fossam, reversus Raguel ad uxorem suam dixit ei:
When they had prepared the pit, Raguel returned to his wife and said to her:
Tobit 8:14
Mitte unam ex ancillis tuis, et videat si mortuus est, ut sepeliam eum antequam lucescat dies.
'Send one of your maidservants to see if he is dead, so that I may bury him before it is light.'
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
- The urgency to bury before dawn — Raguel wants to avoid public scandal. His concern is both practical (avoid shame) and compassionate (spare Sarah further humiliation).
Tobit 8:15
At illa misit unam ex ancillis suis, quae ingressa cubiculum repperit eos salvos et incolumes, secum pariter dormientes.
She sent one of her maidservants, who entered the bedchamber and found them safe and sound, sleeping peacefully together.
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
salvos et incolumes
"safe and sound"
A redundant emphasis — both alive, both unharmed. After so much death, Jerome doubles the affirmation of life.
Translator Notes
- The discovery is anticlimactic by design — after seven deaths, this couple is simply sleeping. The ordinariness is the miracle.
Tobit 8:16
Et reversa nuntiavit bonum nuntium, et benedixerunt Deum, Raguel videlicet et Anna uxor eius.
She returned and announced the good news, and Raguel and his wife Anna blessed God.
Tobit 8:17
Et dixit Raguel: Benedictus es, Domine Deus Israhel, quia non contigit quemadmodum putabamus.
And Raguel said: 'Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, because it did not happen as we expected.
Tobit 8:18
Sed fecisti nobiscum misericordiam tuam et exclusisti a nobis inimicum qui persequebatur nos.
But you have shown us your mercy and driven away from us the enemy who persecuted us.
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
inimicum
"the enemy"
Raguel identifies the demon as 'the enemy' — a title used for Satan throughout Scripture (Matt 13:39, 1 Pet 5:8).
Tobit 8:19
Misertus es autem duobus unicis. Fac eos, Domine, plenius benedicere te et sacrificium tibi laudis suae et suae sanitatis offerre, ut cognoscat universitas gentium quia tu es Deus solus in universa terra.
You have had mercy on two only children. Make them, Lord, bless you more fully and offer to you a sacrifice of their praise and of their health, so that all the nations may know that you alone are God in all the earth.'
Notes & Key Terms 1 term
Key Terms
duobus unicis
"two only children"
Both Tobias and Sarah are only children — the stakes of their survival are generational. If either dies, a family line ends.
Translator Notes
- Raguel's prayer expands from personal relief to universal scope — the salvation of two people is meant to testify to all nations. This is covenant logic: particular mercy with universal intent.
Tobit 8:20
Statimque praecepit servis suis Raguel ut replerent fossam quam fecerant, priusquam elucesceret.
Immediately Raguel ordered his servants to fill in the grave they had dug, before it was light.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
- The hasty filling of the grave — before anyone sees it — is the final comic touch. The grave dug in fear is erased in joy, a physical enactment of the reversal theme.
Tobit 8:21
Uxori autem suae dixit ut instrueret convivium et praepararet omnia quae in cibos iter agentibus essent necessaria.
He told his wife to prepare a feast and make ready everything necessary for food for travelers.
Tobit 8:22
Duas quoque pingues vaccas et quattuor arietes occidi fecit et parari epulas omnibus vicinis suis cunctisque amicis.
He also had two fat cows and four rams slaughtered and a feast prepared for all his neighbors and friends.
Tobit 8:23
Et adiuravit Raguel Tobiam ut duas hebdomadas moraretur apud se.
And Raguel made Tobias swear to stay with him for two weeks.
Tobit 8:24
De omnibus autem quae possidebat Raguel dimidiam partem dedit Tobiae et fecit scripturam ut pars dimidia quae supererat post obitum eorum Tobiae dominio deveniret.
Of all that Raguel possessed, he gave half to Tobias and made a written document that the remaining half, after their deaths, should come under Tobias's ownership.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
- The legal precision continues — a written inheritance agreement ensures Tobias's future claims. Raguel's generosity and legal foresight demonstrate complete acceptance of his new son-in-law.