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Tobit 4 - A Father's Testament

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This narration is from a previous version of the study and may include a combined recording of multiple chapters.

Tobit remembers a deposit of money just after asking God to take his life. Before Tobias can recover that money, however, his father gives him something more enduring: a way to live. Anna’s hidden sacrifices, the poor person’s face, a worker’s unpaid wages, the choice of a wife, and the need for wise counsel all enter this testament. Exile has taken much from the household; Tobit wants it to take neither their remembrance of God nor their capacity for mercy.

The chapter gathers Israel’s commandments and wisdom into the ordinary decisions of a son about to leave home. Its unity is the fear of God: possessions, desire, family duties, and plans become rightly ordered when they are received before Him. In Christ, this inheritance reaches its fullness in love for the neighbor whom the Lord receives as His own.

A note on verse labels. The Scripture below retains Brenton’s words and punctuation. Standard verse numbers 8–18 are followed by the corresponding eBible Brenton labels in brackets: [7a] through [7l], with no [7j]. These labels divide the shorter Greek text carried by Vaticanus and Alexandrinus; they do not mark missing words. The Tobit Overview explains the book’s shorter and longer Greek forms in its note on the text. The lettered numbering here is an editorial division, not the gap in Codex Sinaiticus at this passage.1

A Father Speaks Before Death (Tobit 4:1-2)

1 In that day Tobit remembered the money which he had committed to Gabael in Rages of Media, 2 and said with himself, I have wished for death; wherefore do I not call for my son Tobias, that I may signify to him of the money before I die?

Tobit’s memory returns to Gabael and the money entrusted to him in Media. His wish for death has not vanished, but he turns from his own anguish toward his son’s future. He calls Tobias because something remains to be given. The father who feels his life is ending still has a responsibility that suffering cannot erase.

This is a wisdom-testament, a father’s gathered counsel for life beyond his presence. The deposit matters, yet it is framed by commandments about what money cannot secure: a grateful heart, truthful conduct, purity, justice, and dependence on God. Tobias will need these wherever the road takes him.

Spiritual parenthood begins here. A child may inherit savings without learning generosity, receive opportunities without learning gratitude, or know religious customs without remembering God. Tobit places the use of the inheritance before its recovery. The lasting gift is a conscience formed to recognize whom the money is meant to serve.

Honor Your Mother and Keep Holy Memory (Tobit 4:3-4)

3 And when he had called him, he said, My son, when I am dead, bury me; and despise not thy mother, but honour her all the days of thy life, and do that which shall please her, and grieve her not. 4 Remember, my son, that she saw many dangers for thee, when thou wast in her womb; and when she is dead, bury her by me in one grave.

Before any instruction about alms, Tobit names Anna. His son must care for her throughout her life and bury her beside him when she dies. The mercy Tobit has shown strangers in their burial now becomes a duty within his own household. Exodus 20:12 commands honor for father and mother; Tobit makes that honor concrete in care, restraint, and faithful remembrance.

“She saw many dangers for thee” turns Tobias’s attention toward a cost he could never remember for himself. His life began within another person’s vulnerability. Sirach 7:27 speaks with the same tenderness: “forget not the sorrows of thy mother.” Gratitude is more than affection for what a parent has visibly done; it is recognition of sacrifices made before a child could even know them.2

Anna has carried the household through Tobit’s blindness, and the reader remembers his unjust suspicion of her in Tobit 2:11-14. His charge to Tobias does not erase that failure. It places her dignity before his son and makes contempt incompatible with the family’s spiritual inheritance. In wounded families, honor does not require denying abuse or abandoning necessary boundaries. It resists the proud forgetfulness that treats the self as self-made, while seeking care that is truthful and safe.

Remember God and Walk Uprightly (Tobit 4:5-6)

5 My son, be mindful of the Lord our God all thy days, and let not thy will be set to sin, or to transgress his commandments: do uprightly all thy life long, and follow not the ways of unrighteousness. 6 For if thou deal truly, thy doings shall prosperously succeed to thee, and to all them that live justly.

“Be mindful of the Lord our God all thy days” is the center from which the other commands grow. Remembrance means keeping God present to the will: what I desire, what I permit myself, and what I do when no one is watching. Tobit joins inward vigilance to outward conduct. A claimed good intention cannot make crooked dealings upright, and a religious appearance cannot heal a will deliberately set toward sin.

The promise of success in verse 6 belongs to wisdom’s confidence that truth is the right foundation for life. Tobit’s own blindness prevents it from becoming a guarantee of comfort. Faithful conduct can be costly; its fruit cannot be measured by immediate prosperity. A person who refuses falsehood preserves something more precious than a convenient outcome: the freedom to stand before God without building life upon deception.

Christ calls Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life in John 14:6. Remembrance of Him makes daily obedience personal. The kingdom sought in Matthew 6:31-33 governs the household’s needs rather than being added after them. Prayer before a decision, honest speech when a lie would protect our reputation, and repentance when our will has wandered are ways of keeping Tobit’s counsel alive.

Alms Before the Face of God (Tobit 4:7-11)

7 Give alms of thy substance; and when thou givest alms, let not thine eye be envious, neither turn thy face from any poor, and the face of God shall not be turned away from thee. 8 [7a] If thou hast abundance, give alms accordingly: if thou have but a little, be not afraid to give according to that little: 9 [7b] for thou layest up a good treasure for thyself against the day of necessity. 10 [7c] Because that alms do deliver from death, and suffereth not to come into darkness. 11 [7d] For alms is a good gift unto all that give it in the sight of the most High.

Tobit speaks of an eye and a face before he speaks of treasure. The envious eye counts what the gift will cost; the averted face refuses the poor person’s claim upon our attention. Turning toward the poor joins the giver’s life to the mercy of God. Almsgiving takes substance because hunger and exposure are bodily realities. Kind words cannot replace the bread or clothing that is within our power to give.

This counsel grows from Israel’s wisdom. Proverbs 10:2 declares that righteousness delivers from death; Proverbs 11:4 in Hebrew-based Bibles contrasts that deliverance with riches that fail in the day of wrath. Sirach 3:30 compares alms’ cleansing of sin to water quenching fire. Daniel counsels a proud king to turn from sin through alms and compassion for the poor: Daniel 4:27 in familiar English numbering is Daniel 4:24 in Brenton’s Greek ordering.3

These texts give mercy the seriousness of repentance. A donation used to excuse exploitation leaves the sinful life intact; genuine almsgiving begins to undo the heart’s captivity to possessions. Christ is the deliverer from death through His Cross and Resurrection. Our mercy is a response to His grace and a participation in His life, not a price that purchases salvation. Galatians 5:6 names this living union of trust and obedience as faith working through love.

“If thou have but a little” leaves the poor giver within the circle of mercy. Tobit measures the gift according to what is possessed, freeing generosity from comparison. Mark 12:41-44 reveals the same concern when Christ sees the widow’s two small coins and knows the cost hidden within them. Her offering does not license pressure upon the vulnerable; it reveals that a small gift can express a great trust.

The “good treasure” of verse 9 [7b] also looks beyond a household’s deposit. In Matthew 6:19-21, treasure and heart belong together; in Luke 12:33, gifts to the poor are joined to treasure that does not fail. What is released in mercy becomes part of the giver’s enduring life before God. Matthew 25:31-46 supplies the Christological key: the hungry and naked are not obstacles between us and the Lord. He identifies Himself with those who need our care.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St. Cyprian of Carthage makes Tobit a direct model for Christian parenthood in On Works and Alms, section 20. He urges parents to give their children saving instruction, then sets Tobit’s counsel about remembering God and sharing with the poor before them: “Be rather such a father to your children as was Tobias.”4 Here “Tobias” names the father in the translation Cyprian’s work uses. Cyprian’s point reaches the whole chapter: the parent’s duty is to prepare a child for life with God, not simply to preserve an estate. Children learn what possessions are for by seeing whom their household serves. Cyprian quotes a Latin form of Tobit close to the longer Greek tradition: his citation has “Gehenna” where Brenton has “darkness.” The wording differs, while the summons to mercy remains unmistakable.

Cyprian begins the same treatise with the Father sending the Son to give us life, then describes mercy as a remedy for sins after baptism. His account of repentance in sections 1-2 is developed beside Raphael’s words in the Tobit 11-12 study.5

St. Polycarp of Smyrna gives an early Christian echo of Tobit’s counsel in Epistle to the Philippians, chapter 10: “alms delivers from death.”6 His surrounding exhortation concerns steadfast faith, the meekness of the Lord, and despising no one. He presses toward prompt action: when good can be done, postponement can become a quiet refusal. Mercy grows when the person before us becomes more real than our excuses.

Purity, Kinship, Pride, and Wages (Tobit 4:12-14)

12 [7e] Beware of all whoredom, my son, and chiefly take a wife of the seed of thy fathers, and take not a strange woman to wife, which is not of thy father’s tribe: for we are the children of the prophets, Noe, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember, my son, that our fathers from the beginning, even that they all married wives of their own kindred, and were blessed in their children, and their seed shall inherit the land. 13 [7f] Now therefore, my son, love thy brethren, and despise not in thy heart thy brethren, the sons and daughters of thy people, in not taking a wife of them: for in pride is destruction and much trouble, and in lewdness is decay and great want: for lewdness is the mother of famine. 14 [7g] Let not the wages of any man, which hath wrought for thee, tarry with thee, but give him it out of hand: for if thou serve God, he will also repay thee: be circumspect, my son, in all things thou doest, and be wise in all thy conversation.

The counsel about marriage follows the counsel about possessions because both concern desire under the covenant. Tobit names the ancestors and the inheritance of the land: Tobias’s future household belongs to a history of promise. Genesis 24:3-4 recounts Abraham’s charge to seek a wife for Isaac among his kindred; Genesis 28:1-2 gives Isaac’s corresponding instruction to Jacob. Tobit invokes that patriarchal pattern within an exiled family whose worship and identity are vulnerable to being forgotten. The Tobit 5-6 study follows this pattern onto the road, where the promised angelic guidance becomes personal companionship.

The command is particular to this setting, not a charter for Christian ethnic contempt. Marriage joins lives, loyalties, and worship, and Tobit wants covenant faithfulness to survive in his son’s home. His warning about pride immediately exposes the danger of despising one’s own people. Family tradition becomes spiritually empty when it is honored in public while its actual members are treated with disdain.

The warning against “whoredom” concerns desire that treats another person as something to use. Such desire damages the freedom needed for faithful love. The marriage of Tobias and Sarah will answer this warning through prayer in Tobit 8:4-8. Chastity prepares them to receive one another before God, rather than allowing appetite to decide what love means.

The worker’s wages then bring the chapter down to an obligation with a deadline. Leviticus 19:13 forbids retaining a hired person’s pay overnight; Deuteronomy 24:14-15 commands payment before sunset because the poor worker depends upon it. Tobit’s “out of hand” carries that urgency into exile. The employer’s convenience cannot take precedence over the laborer’s food.

James 5:1-6 - The Cry of Unpaid Wages carries the same judgment into the Church: the withheld wages and the laborers’ cries reach the Lord of hosts. Alms cannot sanctify money that justice requires us to pay someone else. Honoring contracts, paying promptly, and correcting an underpayment are acts of obedience before God. Charity begins to ring false when a household gives publicly while a worker must repeatedly ask for what is already owed.

The Measure of Mercy and Counsel (Tobit 4:15-18)

15 [7h] Do that to no man which thou hatest: drink not wine to make thee drunken: neither let drunkenness go with thee in thy journey. 16 [7i] Give of thy bread to the hungry, and of thy garments to them that are naked; and according to thine abundance give alms; and let not thine eye be envious, when thou givest alms. 17 [7k] Pour out thy bread on the burial of the just, but give nothing to the wicked. 18 [7l] Ask counsel of all that are wise, and despise not any counsel that is profitable.

“Do that to no man which thou hatest” asks Tobias to recognize another person’s vulnerability through his own. The Lord’s positive form in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31 carries that recognition into active kindness: do for others what you would wish them to do for you. Restraint protects a neighbor from harm; love also takes the initiative to help.

Sobriety serves the same love. Tobias is about to travel, and drunkenness can make him careless toward danger and toward other people. Watchfulness keeps mind and body available for the duties of the road. The repeated command about bread and garments makes attentiveness material again: the hungry person needs to eat, and the naked person needs covering. A habit of looking away cannot become compassionate simply by changing its language.

“Pour out thy bread on the burial of the just” likely refers to food shared in mourning at a righteous person’s burial. Jeremiah 16:7 speaks explicitly of bread broken for consolation over the dead; Ezekiel 24:17 belongs to the same world of mourning bread. This setting makes the line intelligible without assuming that Tobit is directing Tobias to feed the dead. The living mourners need both comfort and sustenance.7

“But give nothing to the wicked” is the difficult limit placed beside that generosity. Sirach 12:4-7 gives a similar warning, particularly against help that strengthens the recipient to do harm. Tobit’s distinction gives giving a moral purpose; it is not permission to label everyone we dislike unworthy of food. Christ commands love for enemies in Matthew 5:43-48. Christian discernment therefore seeks the person’s good while refusing to finance abuse, addiction, or exploitation. Direct food, responsible assistance, and help offered through trusted carers can preserve both compassion and safety.8

Finally, Tobias is told to receive profitable counsel. A man who needs to prove that he is self-sufficient can reject wisdom even when it would protect him. Tobias will soon accept a companion whose full identity he does not yet know. Teachability prepares him for that help: God can direct a person through another’s sound counsel before the person understands the full gift being received.

Pray for Directed Paths and Fear God in Poverty (Tobit 4:19-21)

19 Bless the Lord thy God alway, and desire of him that thy ways may be directed, and that all thy paths and counsels may prosper: for every nation hath not counsel; but the Lord himself giveth all good things, and he humbleth whom he will, as he will; now therefore, my son, remember my commandments, neither let them be put out of thy mind.

20 And now I signify this to thee, that I committed ten talents to Gabael the son of Gabrias at Rages in Media. 21 And fear not, my son, that we are made poor: for thou hast much wealth, if thou fear God, and depart from all sin, and do that which is pleasing in his sight.

After parents, purity, alms, wages, bread, and counsel, Tobit returns explicitly to the Lord. His son must ask for directed paths because even wise plans need God’s guidance. “The Lord himself giveth all good things” locates the source of goodness beyond the self. Receiving advice well and praying for direction belong together: prayer makes counsel something to discern before God rather than a device for securing whatever we already want.

“Every nation hath not counsel” limits confidence in human societies and their accumulated advice. Power, prestige, and many voices do not guarantee wisdom. This warning is no basis for despising other peoples; Tobias himself must remain a learner. The Lord who gives can also humble, and remembrance of Him keeps prudence from becoming pride.

The ten talents now reappear. Tobit remembered them at the beginning, but he has waited until his son’s duties are set out before specifying the deposit. The money must be received within a life already ordered toward God and neighbor. Its recovery will set the next chapters in motion; its right use has been the subject of this one.

“Fear not, my son, that we are made poor” speaks directly to a household’s anxiety. Tobit knows that lack is real: he has named bread, garments, and wages because bodies need them. Yet he refuses to let want define his son’s whole future. The fear of God preserves a wealth that circumstances cannot confiscate: a conscience turned from sin, freedom from servitude to possessions, and a life pleasing in God’s sight. A Christian household can seek necessary provision while refusing to teach its children that money is their savior.

The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖

The Katameros cycle distributed in Coptic Lectionary Data 1.3.1 lists Tobit 4:1-21 among the morning prophecies for Friday of the Sixth Week of Great Lent. A seventh Lenten week still follows before Palm Sunday. Heard during the fast, this counsel gives repentance a household and an economic life: gratitude at home, sober conduct, fair payment, and a hand open to the poor.9

On Kiahk 13, December 22, 2026, Coptic Reader’s Liturgy Gospel is Luke 12:32-44. Christ’s call to give alms and seek unfailing treasure joins Tobit’s counsel to the Father’s promise of the Kingdom. On Nasie 3, September 8, 2026, Reader appoints Matthew 25:31-46: the hungry and the unclothed are Christ’s own brethren. These dated readings give the father’s counsel a fitting place within the Church’s remembrance of Raphael.10

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Give your household a conscience as well as provision. Speak about why you give, whom your work serves, and how you make decisions before God. Let children see one act of hidden mercy that costs something real.

  2. Restore the poor person’s face. When a request stirs resentment, pause before refusing. Pray for the person by name if you know it, and consider what practical help you can responsibly offer from what you have.

  3. Remember a hidden sacrifice. Thank someone whose labor or care you have come to take for granted. Where family relationships are painful, seek a truthful and safe form of honor with pastoral help.

  4. Settle what is owed. Review an overdue wage, invoice, reimbursement, or promise. Pay or correct it without making the other person plead again. The justice due to a worker is not an optional charitable gift.

  5. Seek direction before defending your plan. Bring one decision to prayer and to a wise person who is free to disagree with you. Receive correction without rushing to protect your first answer.

Tobit has named the money, but his last word is freedom from fear. Imagine receiving a father’s provision together with his charge to remember God: the gift comes with faces, duties, and a prayer for the road. Bring your own possessions before Christ and name one person they can serve. Ask Him for a heart that can release something today without losing its peace.

Footnotes

  1. eBible, Brenton Tobit 4 and KJV Apocrypha Tobit 4. Brenton labels 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7k, and 7l correspond respectively to standard verses 8–18. Verse 19 follows the lettered sequence. ↩

  2. Sirach 7:27, Brenton English Septuagint. ↩

  3. Proverbs 10:2; compare Proverbs 11:4 in the KJV’s Hebrew-based chapter with Brenton Proverbs 11, which has no verse 4. See also Sirach 3:30 and Daniel 4:24, corresponding to Daniel 4:27 in KJV numbering. ↩

  4. St. Cyprian of Carthage, On Works and Alms (Treatise VIII), section 20, Wallis translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 5, New Advent. The Tobit citations in section 20 differ from Brenton; the Old Latin’s relationship to the longer Greek form is discussed by Di Lella in the NETS introduction, “Attestation.” ↩

  5. St. Cyprian of Carthage, On Works and Alms (Treatise VIII), sections 1-2, Wallis translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 5, New Advent. ↩

  6. St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Epistle to the Philippians, chapter 10, Roberts and Donaldson translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 1, New Advent. ↩

  7. Compare Jeremiah 16:7 and Ezekiel 24:17, Brenton English Septuagint. These parallels support the probable mourning-meal interpretation; they do not prove a single uniform burial practice. ↩

  8. Sirach 12:4-7, Brenton English Septuagint; compare Matthew 5:43-48 for Christian love of enemies. ↩

  9. Coptic Lectionary Data 1.3.1 (@andraws/lectionary-data), Katameros cycle, Friday of the Sixth Week of Great Lent, morning prophecies, Tobit 4:1-21. Package assignment; dated Coptic Reader verification is separate. ↩

  10. Coptic Reader, qualified dated Liturgy readings: December 22, 2026, Koiahk 13, Luke 12:32-44; September 8, 2026, Nesi 3, Matthew 25:31-46. The calendar in Coptic Lectionary Data 1.3.1 instead lists Mark 12:41-44 at Matins on Kiahk 13 and Matthew 25:32-46 at the Nasie Liturgy. Those alternative package labels are not substituted for Reader’s dated assignments. The widow’s offering is developed above as a scriptural parallel, not as a Reader-confirmed Kiahk reading; one dated table does not establish an unchanging annual assignment. ↩

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