Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Tobias sends Raphael to Rages to collect the deposit from Gabelus, and to invite him to the wedding. Gabelus comes, and wishes the spouses every happiness.
Vulgate Text: Tobias 9:1-12
1. Then Tobias called the Angel to him, whom indeed he thought to be a man, and said to him: Brother Azarias, I ask that you listen to my words. 2. If I gave myself to you as a servant, I would not be worthy of your care. 3. Nevertheless I beg you to take animals or servants with you, 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. 4. For you yourself know that my father counts the days: and if I am delayed one day more, his soul is grieved. 5. And certainly you see how Raguel has made me swear, whose oath I cannot disregard. 6. Then Raphael, taking four of Raguel's servants and two camels, went to Rages, a city of the Medes, and finding Gabelus, returned to him his bond, and received from him all the money. 7. And he told him about Tobias the son of Tobias, all things that had been done: and he made him come with him to the wedding. 8. And when he had entered the house of Raguel, he found Tobias reclining at table: and leaping up, they kissed one another; and Gabelus wept, and blessed God, 9. and said: May the God of Israel bless you, because you are the son of a most excellent man, both just and fearing God, and one who gives alms; 10. and may a blessing be spoken over your wife, and over your parents: 11. and may you see your children, and your children's children to the third and fourth generation: and may your seed be blessed by the God of Israel, who reigns forever and ever. 12. And when all had said Amen, they proceeded to the banquet; but they also conducted the wedding banquet with the fear of the Lord.
Verse 2: If I Gave Myself to You as a Servant
2. If I gave myself to you as a servant, I would not be worthy of your care — that is, I would not have repaid your provident care for me, nor rendered it a worthy reward.
Verse 3: Go to Gabelus in Rages
3. Servants — that is, slaves.
Go to Gabelus in Rages of the Medes. — You will say: They were already in Rages; for Sarah is said to have lived there, chapter III, verse 7. I answer: They were in Rages, that is, in the territory or district of Rages, just as someone who lives in Tusculum is said to live at Rome, even though he does not live in the city of Rome itself. Or rather, it must be said that there were two cities having the same name Rages. So Lyra, Bellarmine, and others. Sanchez gives the reason, that Rages is a Median word borrowed by the Greeks. For in Greek ragas means a fissure, rupture, or fracture. Rages therefore means a rocky, split, broken place; because therefore both cities were situated in rough and rugged places, both were called Rages. In Hebrew, Rages means a crowd, tumult, noise, trembling, roar.
Verse 10: May a Blessing Be Spoken over Your Wife
10. And may a blessing be spoken over your wife, and over your parents — so that all who see your virtue, and therefore God's blessing and prosperity, may bless you and say: Blessed be Sarah, who is the wife of so upright a man as Tobias; blessed be the parents of both, who leave behind such noble sons and daughters. For the honor and praise of children is the honor and praise of parents: for the disgrace, as well as the honor of children, redounds upon the parents. Wherefore the Emperor Basil gave this remarkable admonition to his son Leo, indeed also a stimulus to emulate his father's virtue: "I beseech you, do not shame me, your loving father. For painters must render the outlines of bodies, but the sons of kings, as living images, must reproduce the virtues of their fathers." So also that woman, seeing the virtues and wisdom of Christ, exclaimed: "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that nursed You," Luke XI, 27.
Verse 12: They Conducted the Wedding Banquet with the Fear of the Lord
12. But they also conducted the wedding banquet with the fear of the Lord — they feasted cheerfully, but honestly, modestly, soberly, and chastely, lest by gluttony, or lascivious or obscene speech they offend God, so that He would send Asmodaeus back into the house. Let spouses and banqueters imitate this, so that they may keep from their tables drunkenness, quarrels, detraction, and filthy speech, by which God is offended and curses marriages and feasts. Let them hear Plato, book VI of the Laws: "Let the expense be according to one's wealth; but to drink to the point of drunkenness is never seemly anywhere; nor is it safe; especially those joined in marriage, the bridegroom and bride must then be in possession of their faculties, when they are entering upon no small change of life; especially so that conception may take place in the most moderate conditions possible: for it is also quite uncertain what night or day brings it about with God's help. Therefore, so that conception may be sound, stable, and calm, one must not, with bodies dissolving in drunkenness, attempt to produce children. He who is filled with wine, stirred by the madness of both soul and body, drags and is dragged in every direction. Therefore a drunkard, as one deprived of his mind, is useless for begetting. For it is likely that he will procreate children that are uneven, unstable, and crooked both in limbs and bodies. Therefore throughout his whole life, and especially as long as he is engaged in procreation, let each one abstain, and take care not to do things that by their nature spontaneously bring on diseases, or that tend toward wantonness and harm. For these are necessarily transferred to the minds and bodies of children who are born, and are impressed upon them, and worse offspring result. But especially on that day (of the wedding) and night." The Greek adds here: Tobias blessed his wife; that is, he prayed well for her, that she might be fruitful and bear and raise upright children: so Isaac "prayed to the Lord for his wife" Rebecca, Genesis XXV, 21.