How does Raguel respond to Tobias’s marriage petition?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Raguel recognizes the family resemblance and welcomes Tobias with tears. Fear of a repeated death initially leaves Raguel without an answer to the marriage petition. The agreement includes joined right hands and a writing on paper, followed by food and blessing.

Chapter breakdown

At Raguel’s house, Raguel noticed the young Tobias’s resemblance to his cousin Tobias and spoke of it to his wife Anna. He asked the visitors where they came from; they said they were captives of Nephtali in Nineveh. When he asked about his brother Tobias, the guide identified the young man as Tobias’s son. Raguel kissed him, wept and blessed him as the son of a good and virtuous man. Raguel’s wife Anna and daughter Sara also wept. Raguel had a sheep killed and invited them to dinner.

Tobias said he would neither eat nor drink there that day until Raguel granted his petition to marry Sara. Raguel feared that the fate of her seven husbands would happen to Tobias, and hesitated without answering. The guide told him not to fear, saying that Sara was due to this man who feared God. Raguel then said he believed God had heard his prayers and brought Tobias to his kindred so that Sara might marry according to the Law of Moses. This assurance does not give the narrator’s explanation of why the earlier husbands died.

Raguel joined their right hands, praying that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob join them and fulfill his blessing. He took paper and made a marriage writing. Afterward they ate and blessed God. Raguel asked Anna to prepare another chamber; she brought Sara into it. In tears, Sara heard her mother wish that the Lord of heaven would give her joy in place of her trouble.

The story inside

Context and action: Raguel recognizes the family resemblance and welcomes Tobias with tears. Response: Fear of a repeated death initially leaves Raguel without an answer to the marriage petition. Recorded boundary: The agreement includes joined right hands and a writing on paper, followed by food and blessing.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Raguel recognizes the family resemblance and welcomes Tobias with tears.
2
Fear of a repeated death initially leaves Raguel without an answer to the marriage petition.
3
The agreement includes joined right hands and a writing on paper, followed by food and blessing.

Test your recall

Why does Raguel hesitate before answering the marriage petition?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 51061–51062
And Raguel looking upon Tobias, said to Anna his wife: How like is this young man to my cousin?
Lines 51087–51088
Tobias said: I will not eat nor drink here this day, unless thou first grant me my petition, and promise to give me Sara thy daughter.
Lines 51095–51097
The angel said to him: Be not afraid to give her to this man, for to him who feareth God is thy daughter due to be his wife: therefore another could not have her.
Lines 51106–51109
And taking the right hand of his daughter, he gave it into the right hand of Tobias, saying: The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob be with you, and may he join you together, and fulfil his blessing in you.