Tobit 7-8 - Marriage, Prayer, and the Defeat of the Destroyer

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Before Tobias will eat, he asks for a promise. The table is ready, a ram has been killed, and Raguel has welcomed his cousin’s son with tears. Yet Sarah’s future remains unsettled. Tobias’s refusal to begin the feast recalls Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24:33, who would not eat until he had spoken about the marriage he had come to arrange. The road has brought Tobias into the world of Israel’s ancestors, where kinship, hospitality, and a marriage sought under God’s care belong together.

This household also carries a sorrow those earlier stories cannot simply explain away. Seven husbands have died, Sarah has endured accusation, and her parents fear another burial. The answer comes through deliverance and through the bridegroom’s prayer: “I take not this my sister for lust, but uprightly.” He asks for the mercy of growing old together. Sarah answers “Amen.” The shared life they seek begins with both of them before God.

Hospitality Under Fear (Tobit 7:1-8)

¹ And he came to the house of Raguel; and Sara met him: and saluted him, and he them; and she brought them into the house. ² Then said Raguel to Edna his wife, How like is this young man to Tobit my cousin!

³ And Raguel asked them, From whence are ye, brethren? To whom they said, We are of the sons of Nephthali, which are captives in Nineve. ⁴ Then he said to them, Do ye know Tobit our kinsman? And they said, We know him. Then said he, Is he in good health? ⁵ And they said, He is both alive, and in good health: and Tobias said, He is my father. ⁶ Then Raguel leaped up, and kissed him, and wept, ⁷ and blessed him, and said unto him, Thou art the son of an honest and good man. But when he had heard that Tobit was blind, he was sorrowful, and wept.

⁸ And likewise Edna his wife and Sara his daughter wept. Moreover they entertained them cheerfully; and after that they had killed a ram of the flock, they set store of meat on the table. Then said Tobias to Raphael, Brother Azarias, speak of those things of which thou didst talk in the way, and let this business be dispatched.

Sarah meets the travelers, greets them, and brings them inside. Before she appears as a bride, she appears as a host. The woman whose suffering we heard in Tobit 3 still has a voice, a place in her family, and kindness to offer. Her wounds have not exhausted who she is.

Recognition follows. Raguel sees Tobit’s likeness in the young man’s face, asks after his kinsman, and learns that he is speaking to Tobit’s son. He leaps up, kisses Tobias, blesses him, and weeps. The embrace recalls the welcome of Jacob among his mother’s kindred in Genesis 29:11-14: news of the family becomes an embrace, and the traveler is brought into the house. Here the names Nephthali and Nineveh also tell us what exile has done. These relatives share a people and a memory while living far from their homeland.

News of Tobit’s blindness brings fresh tears from Raguel, Edna, and Sarah. Then they welcome their guests cheerfully and prepare food. Their hospitality requires no pretense that everything is well. A grieving household can still make room for another person. Sometimes an offered meal and freely shared tears are the same act of love.

Tobias asks Azarias to speak about the marriage discussed on the road. What began as a private conversation now enters the hearing of the household. Sarah’s future calls for an open commitment.

The Truth Must Be Spoken Before the Feast (Tobit 7:9-12)

⁹ So he communicated the matter with Raguel: and Raguel said to Tobias, Eat and drink, and make merry: ¹⁰ for it is meet that thou shouldest marry my daughter: nevertheless I will declare unto thee the truth. ¹¹ I have given my daughter in marriage to seven men, who died that night they came in unto her: nevertheless for the present be merry. But Tobias said, I will eat nothing here, till we agree and swear one to another. ¹² And Raguel said, Then take her from henceforth according to the manner, for thou art her cousin, and she is thine, and the merciful God give you good success in all things.

“I will eat nothing here, till we agree and swear one to another.” The words bring Genesis 24:33 sharply into view. Abraham’s servant also stood before a meal in the house of his master’s relatives and refused to eat until his errand was spoken. There the marriage concerned Isaac and Rebekah; here the bridegroom speaks for himself. Both scenes place the marriage business before the enjoyment of hospitality. The feast waits for a truthful answer.

Raguel gives that answer without concealing the deaths. His declaration is painful, but Tobias receives the truth before he receives Sarah as his wife. For a reader preparing for marriage, this is a serious mercy. Important truths about a shared future cannot be postponed until the other person has committed. A blessing cannot make deception or coercion holy.

Raguel’s repeated invitation to be merry carries the strain of a father who longs for celebration and fears its end. His final words place the couple under “the merciful God.” He can declare the kinship and give his blessing; he cannot guarantee the night. The covenant is made in the presence of that vulnerability.

Sarah Given by the Hand (Tobit 7:13-15)

¹³ Then he called his daughter Sara, and she came to her father, and he took her by the hand, and gave her to be wife to Tobias, saying, Behold, take her after the law of Moses, and lead her away to thy father. And he blessed them; ¹⁴ and called Edna his wife, and took paper, and did write an instrument of covenants, and sealed it. ¹⁵ Then they began to eat.

Raguel calls Sarah, takes her hand, blesses the couple, and seals a written instrument of covenants. The promise becomes a public responsibility. The document is a strikingly explicit detail in a biblical marriage narrative: this household puts its undertaking into writing before it begins to eat.

“After the law of Moses” belongs to the inheritance question raised on the road. Numbers 36:6-9 concerns heiresses marrying within their father’s tribe so that the inheritance remains with that tribe. This gives the kinship language a scriptural setting. It does not make every detail of Raguel’s action a command quoted from Moses, nor does it authorize treating a woman as property. Sarah has already prayed, received guests, and spoken; she will shortly join Tobias’s prayer. Marriage entails responsibility toward this person, whose life God has heard and valued.

Christ brings the creation purpose of marriage into the light in Matthew 19:4-6. Husband and wife become one flesh through God’s joining. In Ephesians 5:25-33, the husband’s love receives the measure of Christ giving Himself for the Church. A covenant worthy of that Lord makes the spouse’s good a claim upon one’s own life. The blessing over a marriage therefore reaches into ordinary conduct: speech, fidelity, bodily tenderness, forgiveness, and the refusal to dominate.

Edna Receives Sarah’s Tears (Tobit 7:16-18)

¹⁶ After Raguel called his wife Edna, and said unto her, Sister, prepare another chamber, and bring her in thither. ¹⁷ Which when she had done as he had bidden her, she brought her thither: and she wept, and she received the tears of her daughter, and said unto her, ¹⁸ Be of good comfort, my daughter; the Lord of heaven and earth give thee joy for this thy sorrow: be of good comfort, my daughter.

Edna “received the tears of her daughter.” She prepares the room and enters her daughter’s sorrow before offering consolation. Romans 12:15 gives the Christian community the same simple task: to weep with those who weep. A person in anguish may need someone willing to remain beside her more than someone ready with an explanation.

Edna calls twice for good comfort, but her blessing names the sorrow between those calls. She asks the Lord of heaven and earth to give Sarah joy for it. She is asking for something she cannot produce by maternal affection alone.

Sarah’s history gives these tears their weight. Another marriage chamber means another encounter with the place of repeated loss and cruel blame. The text offers no warrant for making her guilty of those deaths or for satisfying curiosity about her suffering. Edna’s care shows a better response: receive the tears, speak the beloved person’s name with tenderness, and bring the fear before God.

They Rise to Pray (Tobit 8:1-8)

¹ And when they had supped, they brought Tobias in unto her. ² And as he went, he remembered the words of Raphael, and took the ashes of the perfumes, and put the heart and the liver of the fish thereupon, and made a smoke therewith. ³ The which smell when the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the utmost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him.

⁴ And after that they were both shut in together, Tobias rose out of the bed, and said, Sister, arise, and let us pray that God would have pity on us. ⁵ Then began Tobias to say, Blessed art thou, O God of our fathers, and blessed is thy holy and glorious name for ever; let the heavens bless thee, and all thy creatures. ⁶ Thou madest Adam, and gavest him Eve his wife for an helper and stay: of them came mankind: thou hast said, It is not good that man should be alone; let us make unto him an aid like unto himself. ⁷ And now, O Lord, I take not this my sister for lust, but uprightly: therefore mercifully ordain that we may become aged together. ⁸ And she said with him, Amen.

Tobias remembers Raphael’s instruction. The evil spirit flees, and the angel binds him. The sequence matters: the flight and binding are narrated before Tobias’s spoken prayer. The chapter holds obedience, angelic service, and prayer together without turning the prayer into a technique for compelling deliverance. The created means belong to this particular story, as discussed in the preceding study.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

The spirit flees “into the utmost parts of Egypt.” Scripture can portray deserted places as the abode of threatening powers, as in Isaiah 13:21 LXX and Matthew 12:43. Brenton names a remote destination; it does not identify a particular monastery or Antony’s later dwelling. Egypt itself is also the land where the Christ Child found refuge in Matthew 2:13-15, and Isaiah 19:1 pictures the Lord’s coming before which its idols tremble.

For a Coptic Christian, St. Athanasius’s account of Antony gives this geography a further resonance. In Life of Antony 13, voices within the deserted fort protest, “Go from what is ours.” Antony directs his frightened visitors to the Cross. In section 14, the result of his discipline is healing, reconciliation, and a desert inhabited by monks who seek heavenly citizenship.¹ This is a later Christian witness to Christ’s victory in Egypt, not Athanasius’s commentary on Tobit or evidence that Antony fought Sarah’s particular tormentor. The enemy’s claim to a place is no title of ownership before the Lord.

Tobias now rises from the bed and asks Sarah to rise with him. “Sister” is an address within kinship and marriage, not a denial of their union. The Song of Songs joins the names “my sister, my spouse” in Song of Songs 4:9-12. Affection and marital desire can belong together without reducing the beloved to an appetite. The bridegroom’s appeal, “let us pray,” makes their need a shared petition: God, have pity on us.

Tobias begins his prayer by blessing God’s name, calling heaven and the creatures to bless Him, and remembering Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:18-24 supplies the reason for their companionship: the Creator wills a fitting help for the human person who is alone, and joins man and woman in one flesh. In a room marked by fear of death, Tobias remembers that marriage began as God’s gift of life together.

“I take not this my sister for lust, but uprightly” gives chastity its married form. Sexual union is not being condemned. Tobias asks that desire serve a faithful life with Sarah rather than make her serve his desire. His petition reaches beyond the night to old age. Love wants to remain when beauty changes, when care becomes costly, and when one spouse must receive more than he or she can give.

Sarah says “Amen” with him. The earlier prayer of a woman alone in distress has become a prayer she shares with her husband. Her reply is brief, but the narrator preserves it. Tobias’s words do not swallow her voice.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic Holy Matrimony prayers return to the same beginning. The First Prayer for Marriage recalls the creation of man and woman and asks God to join the couple; the Second remembers His blessing of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah. The litany also recalls Cana, and the Gospel reading is Matthew 19:1-6. The final benediction invokes the prayers of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.² The published rite does not name Tobias and Sarah. Its affinity with their prayer lies in the shared appeal to the Creator, the blessing of marriage, and the mercy that guards a life together.

The lectionary data lists these chapters among the morning prophecies for Friday of the Sixth Week of Great Lent. In that day’s Matins Gospel, John 3:14-21, the Father gives His only-begotten Son. Beside it, Raguel will praise mercy shown to two only children in Tobit 8:17. The words can deepen our attention to the preciousness of these endangered lives and to the Father’s gift. Tobias and Sarah remain human children receiving mercy; the Gospel speaks of the eternal Son given for the life of the world.³

The Grave That Is Not Filled (Tobit 8:9-14)

⁹ So they slept both that night. And Raguel arose, and went and made a grave, ¹⁰ saying, I fear lest he also be dead. ¹¹ But when Raguel was come into his house, ¹² he said unto his wife Edna, Send one of the maids, and let her see whether he be alive: if he be not, that we may bury him, and no man know it. ¹³ So the maid opened the door, and went in, and found them both asleep, ¹⁴ and came forth, and told them that he was alive.

While the couple sleep, Raguel makes a grave. His blessing has not removed his fear. Repeated loss has taught him to prepare for another death, and his plan to bury Tobias secretly shows how heavily shame still presses upon the house.

The maid finds both of them asleep. Ordinary rest becomes the sign that the expected catastrophe has not come. Raguel was preparing a burial while his daughter and her husband were safely resting. What he suspected was not what had happened.

Psalm 30:5 (LXX 29:6) gives words to the change from evening weeping to morning joy. Here that change comes within a single night. Other mourners wait much longer, and some die still longing for the earthly reunion they sought. Their tears are no proof that they prayed less faithfully. The Church’s final hope rests in Christ’s Resurrection, which reaches even those whose graves were filled. Tobit’s particular deliverance is a gift to praise, never a timetable imposed upon another household’s grief.

Raguel Learns to Praise Again (Tobit 8:15-18)

¹⁵ Then Raguel praised God, and said, O God, thou art worthy to be praised with all pure and holy praise: therefore let thy saints praise thee with all thy creatures: and let all thine angels and thine elect praise thee for ever. ¹⁶ Thou art to be praised, for thou hast made me joyful; and that is not come to me which I suspected; but thou hast dealt with us according to thy great mercy. ¹⁷ Thou art to be praised, because thou hast had mercy of two that were the only begotten children of their fathers: grant them mercy, O Lord, and finish their life in health with joy and mercy. ¹⁸ Then Raguel bade his servants to fill the grave.

Raguel calls saints, creatures, angels, and the elect into his thanksgiving. One household’s joy belongs within the praise of all creation. The shape is familiar from Psalm 148:1-13, where angels and creatures are summoned to bless the Lord. Having feared that death would enter his house again, Raguel now discovers that his house can join their song. In Midnight Praise, the Third Hoos gathers creation into the Song of the Three Young Men, and the Fourth Hoos sings Psalms 148-150. Raguel’s thanksgiving has that same widening reach: a family’s rescued joy becomes praise among God’s creatures.⁴

His thanksgiving tells the truth about his former expectation: “that is not come to me which I suspected.” He can acknowledge his fear without making it the measure of God’s action. Mercy has met the family more generously than his preparations allowed him to imagine.

The two only children matter to two sets of parents. Their lives carry the hopes of both households. Yet Raguel’s prayer still asks for mercy, health, and joy for the years ahead. A safe wedding night opens a life that continues to need God.

Then he orders the grave filled. It was dug for Tobias, but it will receive no body. For the Christian reader, that useless grave can awaken gratitude to Christ, whose Resurrection defeats the death which this family escaped for a night. The comparison is a spiritual resonance, not an equation between this prepared grave and the Lord’s tomb. Tobias has been preserved from dying; Christ truly died and rose.

The Feast Continues in Peace (Tobit 8:19-21)

¹⁹ And he kept the wedding feast fourteen days. ²⁰ For before the days of the marriage were finished, Raguel had said unto him by an oath, that he should not depart till the fourteen days of the marriage were expired; ²¹ and then he should take the half of his goods, and go in safety to his father; and should have the rest when I and my wife be dead.

Raguel keeps the feast for fourteen days. The story gives rescued life time to become celebration. Food, company, and the promise of a future follow the fearful night. Sarah’s home can become a place where joy lasts.

The oath also creates the next difficulty. Raguel asks Tobias to stay until the feast is complete, while Tobit and Anna will count the passing days without knowing the reason. A blessing in one house can remain unknown in another. The next study follows that cost of distance.

Raguel promises half his goods now and the remainder after his and Edna’s death. The marriage opens into a future of shared provision and responsibility. Its prayer will need to become patience at the table, honesty about possessions, care for aging parents, and kindness between the two families. “Become aged together” is a large petition. Every day gives it another small and necessary form.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Put truth before celebration. Tobias waits for an agreement before eating. Where a relationship is moving toward commitment, make room for honest speech about duties, fears, and wounds. Pressure to preserve a happy occasion is a poor reason to hide what another person needs to know.

Receive tears before answering them. Edna’s daughter is allowed to weep in her mother’s presence. When someone entrusts sorrow to you, resist the need to explain it away. Stay, listen, pray, and offer the practical care the person can receive.

Let married chastity shape ordinary speech and desire. Tobias asks for a life together, not a moment’s possession. Examine the small habits that make a spouse feel used: a demand disguised as affection, a cruel joke, refusal to listen, or tenderness offered only when something is wanted. Bring these to repentance and choose one act of unclaimed service.

Pray as two people who need mercy. A shared prayer need not be eloquent or long. Begin by thanking God, name the help you both need, and leave room for the other’s “Amen.” Prayer alongside coercion or cruelty requires truth, repentance, and protection for the person harmed; religious words do not make harm safe.

Raguel has a grave ready, but his daughter and her husband are asleep. The news that reaches him is simpler than the catastrophe he expected: Tobias lives. Before Christ, we can bring the fears we have already rehearsed without pretending to know tomorrow. Lord, receive our frightened love, guard those entrusted to us, and teach our homes to answer Your mercy with praise.

Teaching Notes

Hospitality Under Fear (Tobit 7:1-8)

• Ask: What does Sarah do before anyone speaks about the marriage?
• Emphasize: Her greeting, hospitality, prayer, and “Amen” keep her visible as a person throughout the story.
• Watch for: Let the tears remain part of the welcome. A grieving home need not pretend cheerfulness in order to serve.
• Connect: Compare the family recognition and embraces in Genesis 29:11-14.

The Truth Must Be Spoken Before the Feast (Tobit 7:9-12)

• Ask: How does Tobias’s refusal to eat recall Genesis 24:33?
• Emphasize: The strong literary parallel concerns the order of errand, agreement, and meal, without making the two scenes identical.
• Watch for: Neither fear nor a festive atmosphere excuses concealment or pressure in marriage preparation.
• Connect: Truthfulness is part of the love that seeks another person’s good.

Sarah Given by the Hand (Tobit 7:13-15)

• Ask: What does the sealed written covenant make public?
• Emphasize: Numbers 36:6-9 clarifies the inheritance setting; Sarah’s dignity is not reduced to that legal setting.
• Watch for: Avoid claiming this is Scripture’s first marriage contract or that every detail is prescribed by Moses.
• Connect: Ephesians 5:25-33 places the cost of Christlike love upon the husband rather than licensing domination.

Edna Receives Sarah’s Tears (Tobit 7:16-18)

• Ask: What does Edna receive before she asks for joy?
• Emphasize: Romans 12:15 gives a concrete pattern for accompanying grief.
• Watch for: Avoid probing Sarah’s suffering for dramatic detail or assigning her blame.
• Connect: Allow time for silence, and offer private pastoral support when the passage touches personal wounds.

They Rise to Pray (Tobit 8:1-8)

• Ask: What does Tobias desire for their life, and how does Sarah join the prayer?
• Emphasize: The angel binds the spirit before the spoken prayer is narrated. Prayer seeks mercy rather than controlling God.
• Watch for: Athanasius’s Life of Antony 13-14 is a thematic Egyptian witness, not direct Tobit commentary or a geographical identification.
• Connect: Read Genesis 2:18-24 alongside Matthew 19:4-6. The Ottawa matrimony text recalls creation and invokes Raphael, but does not name Tobias and Sarah.

The Grave That Is Not Filled (Tobit 8:9-14)

• Ask: What separates Raguel’s expectation from what the maid actually finds?
• Emphasize: Ordinary sleep bears witness to the gift of safety.
• Watch for: Do not promise bereaved people a reversal on this household’s timetable or identify fear with a failure of faith.
• Connect: Psalm 30:5 (LXX 29:6) gives language for this night’s change; Christ’s Resurrection sustains hope beyond an earthly deliverance.

Raguel Learns to Praise Again (Tobit 8:15-18)

• Ask: What can Raguel now say about what he had suspected?
• Emphasize: Specific thanksgiving can admit former fear without humiliation.
• Watch for: The “only begotten” resonance with John 3:16 does not identify the couple with Christ or reduce His divine sonship to human only-child status.
• Connect: Psalm 148:1-13 gathers a household’s praise into the worship of creation.

The Feast Continues in Peace (Tobit 8:19-21)

• Ask: Why might a joyful delay cause pain elsewhere?
• Emphasize: The marriage’s prayer opens into shared responsibilities and two families’ futures.
• Watch for: Keep the next chapter’s waiting parents in view without allowing their anxiety to erase this household’s joy.
• Connect: Ask what “become aged together” requires of a marriage this week.

Source Notes

Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX).

This study follows Brenton’s wording and numbering in Tobit 7-8. See the Overview’s note on the text for the book’s different textual forms.

• Tobit 7:1-18
• Tobit 8:1-21

The retained Coptic Reader text for March 27, 2026, at Readings / Matins / Prophecies places this material within its differently numbered Tobit 6:10-9:12 reading. At Readings / Matins / Psalm and Gospel on that date, it prints John 3:14-21. These are dated witnesses, not an assertion that the two editions have identical verse divisions. The preceding study covers Tobit 6:9-17, and the following study covers Tobit 9:1-6.

Footnotes

1. St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of Antony, sections 13-14, trans. H. Ellershaw, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 4 (1892), text at New Advent. A thematic Christian reading of the Egyptian setting, not commentary on Tobit 8:3. ↩

2. The Liturgy of the Holy Matrimony, St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church, Ottawa, second edition (2007), printed pp. 31-34, 37-42, 53, 65: Gospel; litany; marriage prayers; blessing of bride and groom; benediction. Published rite. ↩

3. @andraws/lectionary-data@1.3.1, Katameros cycle, Friday of the Sixth Week of Great Lent, morning prophecies, compared with the dated Coptic Reader witness described below. The following are this study’s readings in that data: ↩

4. St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Church, Nashville, “Month of Kiahk Praises,” “Journey In Kiahk Praises”, identifies the Third Hoos as the Song of the Three Young Men and the Fourth as Psalms 148-150. This is a resonance with Tobit’s prayer, not an appointment of Tobit 8 as one of those canticles. ↩