Tobit 13-14 is the eschatological close of the book. The healed man does not end with private relief. He sings of God who chastens and has mercy, of scattered Israel gathered again, of nations coming to the holy city, and of Jerusalem shining before it can yet be seen.
The spiritual burden is clear: exile does not have the last word. Tobit has lived under Assyrian power, lost his sight, received his son, welcomed Sarah, and learned that hidden mercy was present on the road. Now his restored sight becomes praise, and his praise becomes instruction for those who will live after him.
Tobit 13-14 appears within the checked Coptic Holy Lent reading sequence for Friday of the Sixth Week. This is fitting near the end of the fast. Lent trains the Church to repent with the whole heart, to receive chastening without despair, to practice mercy while still in exile, and to look toward the city whose light is God.
A textual note before reading Tobit 13: in Brenton’s English Septuagint, this chapter is printed with a verse-numbering gap. The text moves from verse 7 to verse 11, so the embedded passage preserves verses 1-7 and 11-18 as this tradition gives them.
The Healed Man Begins with Praise (Tobit 13:1-7)
1 Then Tobit wrote a prayer of rejoicing, and said, Blessed be God that liveth for ever, and blessed be his kingdom.
2 For he doth scourge, and hath mercy: he leadeth down to hell, and bringeth up again: neither is there any that can avoid his hand. 3 Confess him before the Gentiles, ye children of Israel: for he hath scattered us among them. 4 There declare his greatness, and extol him before all the living: for he is our Lord, and he is the God our Father for ever. 5 And he will scourge us for our iniquities, and will have mercy again, and will gather us out of all nations, among whom he hath scattered us.
6 If ye turn to him with your whole heart, and with your whole mind, and deal uprightly before him, then will he turn unto you, and will not hide his face from you. Therefore see what he will do with you, and confess him with your whole mouth, and praise the Lord of might, and extol the everlasting King. In the land of my captivity do I praise him, and declare his might and majesty to a sinful nation. O ye sinners, turn and do justice before him: who can tell if he will accept you, and have mercy on you?
7 I will extol my God, and my soul shall praise the King of heaven, and shall rejoice in his greatness. Let all men speak, and let all praise him for his righteousness. O Jerusalem, the holy city, he will scourge thee for thy children’s works, and will have mercy again on the sons of the righteous. Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: and praise the everlasting King, that his tabernacle may be builded in thee again with joy, and let him make joyful there in thee those that are captives, and love in thee for ever those that are miserable.
Tobit’s final song begins where true healing must begin: “Blessed be God.” In chapter 11 his eyes were opened. In chapter 12 Raphael revealed the hidden mercy behind the road. In chapter 13 Tobit shows what sight is for. Restored sight becomes rejoicing, confession, praise, and witness among the Gentiles.
The song holds chastening and mercy together. God “doth scourge, and hath mercy.” This line must not be softened into vague encouragement. Tobit knows that sin has consequences, that exile is real, and that Jerusalem’s suffering cannot be explained only by politics. Yet he also refuses despair. The same God who chastens is the God who “will have mercy again” and gather His scattered people.
The phrase “he leadeth down to hell, and bringeth up again” speaks in the biblical language of descent to death and return by God’s power. Tobit is not speculating coldly about the afterlife. He is praising the Lord whose hand cannot be avoided, whose mercy can raise the fallen, and whose judgment is never helpless before death. For the Christian reader, this line opens toward Christ, who truly entered death and rose, and who makes return from exile deeper than a political restoration.
Verse 6 gives the ascetical call of the song: turn with the whole heart and whole mind, deal uprightly before Him, confess with the whole mouth, and do justice. Tobit does not teach hope without repentance. The promise of God’s turned face is addressed to people who must turn first. In Lent especially, this is direct and merciful. The heart cannot ask for Jerusalem while clinging to the sins that made exile feel normal.
What is striking is where Tobit praises: “In the land of my captivity do I praise him.” He does not wait until Jerusalem is rebuilt to worship. He confesses God from within captivity, in the empire’s land, before a people who do not share Israel’s covenant memory. This is one of the book’s strongest teachings for Orthodox life in the world. The faithful do not need ideal conditions before they bless God. They need a whole heart.
Jerusalem enters the song before it enters Tobit’s sight. He calls her “the holy city” while still living in Nineveh. He sees her by faith because mercy has healed more than his eyes. His imagination is no longer ruled by exile. This is not nostalgia. It is faith in the God who can rebuild His tabernacle, make captives joyful, and love forever those who are miserable.
The Nations Come to Jerusalem’s Joy (Tobit 13:11-15)
11 Many nations shall come from far to the name of the Lord God with gifts in their hands, even gifts to the King of heaven; all generations shall praise thee with great joy. 12 Cursed are all they which hate thee, and blessed shall all be which love thee for ever. 13 Rejoice and be glad for the children of the just: for they shall be gathered together, and shall bless the Lord of the just. 14 O blessed are they which love thee, for they shall rejoice in thy peace: blessed are they which have been sorrowful for all thy scourges; for they shall rejoice for thee, when they have seen all thy glory, and shall be glad for ever.
15 Let my soul bless God the great King.
Tobit’s Jerusalem is not closed in on itself. “Many nations shall come from far to the name of the Lord God.” This matters because Tobit has just told Israel to confess God before the Gentiles. The scattered people are not only surviving among the nations. They are called to reveal the greatness of God, so that the nations may come with gifts to the King of heaven.
This hope must be guarded from triumphalism. Tobit’s song does not celebrate domination by a religious city over lesser peoples. It imagines nations turning toward the name of the Lord, bringing gifts, praising with joy, and sharing in the peace of God’s restored city. The center is worship, not conquest. The King is God, not the wounded pride of exiles.
The blessing and curse language in verse 12 is serious. To hate the holy city is to hate what God is doing through mercy, gathering, worship, and peace. To love her is to love God’s promise. In Christian reading, this love cannot be reduced to politics or sentiment about stones. Hebrews 12:22-24 says that believers have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. Christ opens the city to us by His Blood, not by human boasting.
The sorrowful are also named: “blessed are they which have been sorrowful for all thy scourges.” Tobit does not ask the wounded to pretend that exile did not hurt. Those who grieved over Jerusalem’s chastening will rejoice when they see her glory. The movement is honest grief, repentance, mercy, and joy. This is why the passage speaks so strongly to Lent. The Church does not rush to joy by denying sorrow. She brings sorrow before God until it becomes repentance, and repentance becomes hope.
Verse 15 returns from the nations and the city to the soul: “Let my soul bless God the great King.” The restored Jerusalem is not an idea to admire from a distance. It must become praise in the person. The soul that has been healed learns to bless God for a future that it may not fully see in this life.
The Streets Say Alleluia (Tobit 13:16-18)
16 For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphire, and emerald, and precious stone: thy walls and towers and battlements with pure gold. 17 And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stone of Ophir. 18 And all her streets shall say, Alleluia; and they shall praise him, saying, Blessed be God, which hath extolled it for ever.
The song now sees Jerusalem as radiant with precious stones and gold. The language is not meant to stir greed. It teaches that God’s restored city is beautiful because it is filled with the glory of God. Stones that human beings treat as treasure become pavement, wall, tower, and praise. The city is not rich in order to possess. It is rich because God has made it a place of worship.
Revelation 21 receives this same biblical imagination. The holy city, new Jerusalem, descends from God, shines with glory, and is described with jasper, sapphire, emerald, and streets of gold. Tobit sees the hope from exile. Revelation shows the hope in its final Christian fullness. The city is not made ultimate by human architecture. Its glory is the presence of God and the Lamb.
The most beautiful line may be the simplest: “all her streets shall say, Alleluia.” Streets do not literally have tongues, but in Scripture creation and city can become praise when God fills them with His glory. Tobit’s hope is not only that Jerusalem will be rebuilt. It is that ordinary public life, the streets themselves, will be turned into worship.
This is where Christ must be named clearly. He is the One who opens the heavenly Jerusalem to exiles. Through His Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension, He brings His people into the city whose praise is not interrupted by empire, blindness, shame, delay, or death. The Church lives now as a people being trained for those streets. Every liturgy, every hidden alms, every confession, every mercy shown in exile is preparation for Alleluia.
The Healed Man Hands Memory to the Children (Tobit 14:1-3)
1 So Tobit made an end of praising God. 2 And he was eight and fifty years old when he lost his sight, which was restored to him after eight years: and he gave alms, and he increased in the fear of the Lord God, and praised him.
3 And when he was very aged, he called his son, and the sons of his son, and said to him, My son, take thy children; for, behold, I am aged, and am ready to depart out of this life.
Chapter 14 begins quietly: Tobit “made an end of praising God.” The song does not disappear into sentiment. It becomes a life that continues in alms, fear of the Lord, and praise. His restored sight is not described as a return to comfort only. It becomes a renewed old age in which mercy and reverence increase.
The numbers matter at the level of memory. Tobit lost his sight at fifty-eight and received it again after eight years. The book wants the wound and the healing to be remembered. Faithful memory is not the same as bitterness. Tobit remembers the years of blindness because they belong to the story of God’s mercy.
When Tobit is very aged, he calls his son and his son’s sons. The final instruction is intergenerational. The healed man does not keep his wisdom inside one private experience. He hands memory to the children. In Scripture, faithful death often takes this form: the elder gathers the next generation, names what must not be forgotten, and places the future under God’s word.
There is a gentle connection with Simeon in Luke 2. Simeon can depart in peace because his eyes have seen God’s salvation in the Christ Child. Tobit is not Simeon, and he does not yet see Christ in the flesh. But he shares the posture of a righteous elder whose eyes have seen mercy and whose death is shaped by praise rather than panic. Faithful death is not denial that life is ending. It is departure with memory, blessing, and hope handed on.
Leave Nineveh and Believe the Prophets (Tobit 14:4-8)
4 Go into Media, my son, for I surely believe those things which Jonas the prophet spake of Nineve, that it shall be overthrown; and that for a time peace shall rather be in Media; and that our brethren shall lie scattered in the earth from that good land: and Jerusalem shall be desolate, and the house of God in it shall be burned, and shall be desolate for a time; 5 and that again God will have mercy on them, and bring them again into the land, where they shall build a temple, but not like to the first, until the time of that age be fulfilled; and afterward they shall return from all places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem gloriously, and the house of God shall be built in it with a glorious building, as the prophets have spoken thereof.
6 And all nations shall turn, and fear the Lord God truly, and shall bury their idols. 7 So shall all nations praise the Lord, and his people shall confess God, and the Lord shall exalt his people; and all those which love the Lord God in truth and justice shall rejoice, shewing mercy to our brethren.
8 And now, my son, depart out of Nineve, because that those things which the prophet Jonas spake shall surely come to pass.
Tobit’s final charge is not vague advice. He tells Tobias to leave Nineveh because he believes the prophetic word about the city’s fall. Nineveh has been the world of exile, imperial power, and apparent permanence. Tobit has lived there faithfully, but he does not confuse survival in the empire with belonging to the empire.
Source: Map of the Assyrian Empire, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
The map helps the reader feel the scale of the Assyrian world behind Tobit’s exile. Nineveh was not a small private problem. It belonged to an imperial order that scattered peoples and seemed able to define the future. Tobit’s faith says otherwise. Empires can be vast and still temporary. The prophetic word can look weak and still outlast the city that mocks it.
Tobit names desolation honestly. Jerusalem will be desolate. The house of God will be burned. The people will be scattered. The song of chapter 13 did not erase these griefs. The final charge places them inside a larger hope: “again God will have mercy.” That word again is precious. The people may pass through chastening, but mercy returns because God is faithful.
The rebuilt temple is described with restraint: “but not like to the first, until the time of that age be fulfilled.” Tobit recognizes partial restoration. This is a mature hope. Not every return is the final return. Not every rebuilt structure is the fullness of glory. The Christian reader can hear how this waits for Christ, who speaks of His own Body as the true temple, who rises after being destroyed, and who gathers worship around Himself.
Verses 6-7 broaden the hope again to the nations. They will turn, fear the Lord truly, bury their idols, praise Him, and rejoice in truth and justice. The fall of Nineveh is not the last word. Idols buried, nations turned, God’s people confessing Him, and mercy shown to the brethren are the last word. Judgment is real, but the goal is not hatred. The goal is worship purified from idols and mercy practiced in truth.
This guards the final verse of the book from a cruel reading. Tobit can rejoice over Nineveh’s fall because violent empire does not rule forever and because God’s prophetic word proves true. The Church must not turn that into delight over human misery. Orthodox hope is not revenge dressed as piety. It is confidence that God will cast down the proud, gather the scattered, and teach the nations to praise Him.
Mercy, Burial, and the Wisdom of the End (Tobit 14:9-11)
9 But keep thou the law and the commandments, and shew thyself merciful and just, that it may go well with thee. 10 And bury me decently, and thy mother with me; but tarry no longer at Nineve. Remember, my son, how Aman handled Achiacharus that brought him up, how out of light he brought him into darkness, and how he rewarded him again: yet Achiacharus was saved, but the other had his reward: for he went down into darkness. Manasses gave alms, and escaped the snares of death which they had set for him: but Aman fell into the snare, and perished.
11 Wherefore now, my son, consider what alms doeth, and how righteousness doth deliver. When he had said these things, he gave up the ghost in the bed, being an hundred and eight and fifty years old; and he buried him honourably.
Tobit’s last moral charge returns to the practices that shaped the whole book: keep the law and commandments, be merciful and just, bury the dead honorably, leave Nineveh, remember the reversals of righteousness and wickedness, and consider what alms do. The end of Tobit is not a new spirituality. It is the same faithful life taught from the beginning, now purified by suffering and sight.
Burial matters here because burial has mattered from chapter 1. Tobit risked himself to bury the dead in exile. Now he asks to be buried decently, with Anna. The man who honored the abandoned dead asks his son to honor father and mother in death. The work of mercy becomes family memory.
Verse 10 recalls the danger of repaying good with evil and the reversal that follows. Aman brings Achiacharus from light into darkness, but Achiacharus is saved and Aman falls into the snare. Manasses gives alms and escapes death. The details may feel distant to a modern reader, but the moral meaning is clear. Injustice traps the person who practices it. Mercy and righteousness deliver because they place the soul under God’s judgment and care.
The line “consider what alms doeth” should be heard with the whole book. Almsgiving is not a purchase of salvation. It is mercy made visible. It loosens greed, honors the vulnerable, remembers the dead, feeds the poor, and trains the heart to live before God rather than before empire. Tobit’s final wisdom is that righteousness delivers because God is righteous, and because a life turned toward mercy stands where God is working.
Then Tobit dies. The text is spare: “he gave up the ghost in the bed.” This is a faithful death, not because it is painless, but because it is full of praise, counsel, memory, and hope. He has seen his son, welcomed Sarah, blessed God, sung Jerusalem, warned against Nineveh, and handed the way of mercy to the next generation. Death does not erase the song. The song becomes inheritance.
Tobias Lives Past Nineveh (Tobit 14:12-15)
12 And when Anna his mother was dead, he buried her with his father. But Tobias departed with his wife and children to Ecbatane to Raguel his father in law,
13 where he became old with honour; and he buried his father and mother in law honourably, and he inherited their substance, and his father Tobit’s. 14 And he died at Ecbatane in Media, being an hundred and seven and twenty years old. 15 But before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineve, which was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus: and before his death he rejoiced over Nineve.
Tobias obeys the memory he has received. After Anna dies, he buries her with Tobit, then departs with Sarah and the children to Ecbatana. The book ends with movement away from Nineveh. The righteous family does not remain where Tobit warned them not to tarry.
The repeated burial language matters. Tobias buries Anna with Tobit, then later buries Raguel and Edna honorably. The son formed by Tobit’s instruction continues the work of mercy across both households. He does not honor only his own parents and forget Sarah’s. Healing has created a wider family obligation.
Tobias grows old with honor and dies in Media. His life is not described with the dramatic detail of the earlier chapters. That quietness is itself meaningful. A faithful life can end in steady honor, buried parents, remembered mercy, children preserved, and obedience to a father’s final charge.
The final line returns to Nineveh. Tobias hears of its destruction and rejoices. This closes the book’s empire theme. The city that held the exiles, the world that seemed too strong to fall, does not outlive God’s word. Yet Tobit’s hope is larger than Nineveh’s ruin. The song has already taught us to look beyond judgment toward Jerusalem, the nations, Alleluia in the streets, and the God who gathers captives.
The Christian reader closes Tobit with eyes lifted to the heavenly Jerusalem. Hebrews 12 says the Church has come to the city of the living God. Revelation 21 shows the holy city shining with the glory of God and the Lamb. Luke 2 shows Simeon departing in peace after seeing salvation. Tobit stands before these fulfillments as a righteous elder in exile, praising before the final glory is visible. Christ is the fulfillment of that hope. He opens the city, gathers the scattered, judges violent powers, and teaches His people to die with praise, not despair.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
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Let healing become worship. Tobit’s sight is restored, but the book does not end with his eyesight. It ends with praise, repentance, Jerusalem, mercy, and hope. When God heals any part of life, ask how that healing can become thanksgiving.
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Return with the whole heart. Tobit 13 does not offer hope without repentance. Turn with the whole heart and whole mind, deal uprightly, confess God, and do justice. Mercy is not an excuse to keep exile’s habits.
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Do not let empire become your imagination. Tobit lived in Nineveh but did not belong to Nineveh. Christians live among powerful systems, cultures, and fears, but the heart must be trained by Jerusalem, not by the empire that looks permanent.
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Hand holy memory to the next generation. Tobit calls his son and grandchildren before he dies. Teach children what mercy has done. Tell them which cities to leave, which commandments to keep, which works of mercy to practice, and which hope to carry.
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Hope without revenge. Nineveh falls, and God’s word is vindicated. Still, the song’s final horizon is not hatred of enemies. It is nations turning, idols buried, the scattered gathered, and all streets saying Alleluia.
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Learn to die with praise. Tobit is ready to depart because his life has become testimony. Faithful death is not control over the moment of death. It is a life ordered toward God so that, when the end comes, memory and hope can be handed on.
Teaching Guide
The Healed Man Begins with Praise (Tobit 13:1-7)
- Ask: Why does Tobit move from restored sight to praise for God’s kingdom, mercy, and gathering?
- Emphasize: Healing is not complete until it becomes worship. Tobit praises from the land of captivity before visible restoration has arrived.
- Watch for: Do not soften the chastening language, and do not make it cruel. The passage holds sin, discipline, mercy, repentance, and gathering together.
- Connect: Christ enters death and rises, fulfilling the hope that God leads down and brings up again.
The Nations Come to Jerusalem’s Joy (Tobit 13:11-15)
- Ask: What kind of future does Tobit see for the nations and Jerusalem?
- Emphasize: The nations come to the name of the Lord with gifts and praise. The hope is worship, not conquest.
- Watch for: Avoid triumphalism or political reduction. Loving Jerusalem means loving God’s promised communion, not using the city to feed pride.
- Connect: Hebrews 12:22-24 shows the Christian fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.
The Streets Say Alleluia (Tobit 13:16-18)
- Ask: Why does the passage describe precious stones, gold, and streets that say Alleluia?
- Emphasize: Beauty becomes worship. The city’s glory is not possession but praise.
- Watch for: Do not read the jewels as greed or luxury. The language points to God’s glory filling the restored city.
- Connect: Revelation 21 receives this imagery and centers it on the presence of God and the Lamb.
The Healed Man Hands Memory to the Children (Tobit 14:1-3)
- Ask: Why does Tobit call both his son and his son’s sons before he dies?
- Emphasize: Holy memory must be handed on. Tobit’s suffering and healing become instruction for the next generation.
- Watch for: Do not treat old age and death as an interruption to the story. Here they become the place where praise turns into inheritance.
- Connect: Luke 2 and Simeon’s peaceful departure can help readers see faithful death shaped by the sight of God’s mercy.
Leave Nineveh and Believe the Prophets (Tobit 14:4-8)
- Ask: Why does Tobit tell Tobias to leave Nineveh?
- Emphasize: Tobit believes the prophetic word more than the empire’s apparent permanence. Nineveh will fall, but God’s mercy will gather His people and turn the nations.
- Watch for: Do not turn Nineveh’s fall into delight over suffering people. Teach it as the judgment of violent empire and the vindication of God’s word.
- Connect: Christ is the true temple and the One who gathers scattered people into the heavenly Jerusalem.
- Show: Use the Assyrian Empire map while explaining Nineveh, exile, imperial power, and why Tobit’s final charge tells Tobias not to remain there.
Mercy, Burial, and the Wisdom of the End (Tobit 14:9-11)
- Ask: What final practices does Tobit leave with Tobias?
- Emphasize: Keep the commandments, be merciful and just, bury the dead honorably, remember reversals, and consider what alms do.
- Watch for: Do not teach almsgiving as buying salvation. Teach it as mercy embodied, joined to repentance and righteousness.
- Connect: The whole book has trained the reader to see burial, alms, justice, and family honor as works done before God.
Tobias Lives Past Nineveh (Tobit 14:12-15)
- Ask: How does Tobias continue Tobit’s instruction after his parents die?
- Emphasize: Tobias obeys, honors both households, leaves Nineveh, and lives to hear that the empire did not outlast God’s word.
- Watch for: Do not make the ending only about destruction. The larger horizon is Jerusalem, gathered nations, and Alleluia.
- Connect: The Church lives toward Hebrews 12 and Revelation 21, where Christ opens the city of the living God.
Source Notes
Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX).
In Brenton’s English Septuagint, Tobit 13 moves from verse 7 to verse 11 in the printed numbering. This guide preserves that numbering, so the embedded Tobit 13 text includes verses 1-7 and 11-18.
The checked Coptic Holy Lent sequence for Friday of the Sixth Week includes Tobit 12:1-22, Tobit 13:1-18, and Tobit 14:1-15 within the broader Tobit readings appointed that day.
No direct patristic commentary on Tobit 13-14 surfaced in the sources used for this guide.
Image attribution is given directly beneath the embedded public-domain map.