How do the bridal night, grave inspection and household arrangements unfold?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Tobias burns the liver, and the narrator then reports Raphael binding the devil. The couple’s prayer seeks health and posterity; the maid finds them safe and asleep. The account distinguishes the banquet, the two-week stay and the present and future portions of the estate.

Chapter breakdown

After supper, the young Tobias was brought to Sara. Remembering the guide’s words, he put part of the fish’s liver from his bag on burning coals. The account then says that Raphael took the devil and bound him in the desert of upper Egypt.

Tobias urged Sara to rise and pray with him that day and the following two days, saying that for these three nights they were joined to God before their own wedlock. As children of saints, he said, they should not join together like heathens who did not know God. Both rose and prayed earnestly for health. Tobias called on all creation to bless God, recalled Adam’s creation and Eve as his helper, and said he married for love of posterity rather than fleshly lust. Sara asked for mercy and that they might grow old together in health.

At cockcrow, Raguel went with servants to dig a grave, fearing that Tobias might have suffered the fate of Sara’s seven husbands. Returning to Anna, he told her to send a maid to see whether Tobias was dead so that he could bury him before daylight. The maid found the couple safe and sound, sleeping together. Raguel and Anna blessed God because what they feared had not happened and prayed that the two only children would offer praise and health to God. Raguel ordered the pit filled before day.

He told Anna to prepare a feast and provisions for the journey, and had two fat kine and four wethers killed for a banquet for neighbors and friends. He adjured Tobias to stay two weeks. He gave Tobias half his possessions and made a writing providing that the remaining half should come to him after Raguel and Anna died. The chapter does not say the banquet itself lasted fourteen days.

The story inside

Context and action: Tobias burns the liver, and the narrator then reports Raphael binding the devil. Response: The couple’s prayer seeks health and posterity; the maid finds them safe and asleep. Recorded boundary: The account distinguishes the banquet, the two-week stay and the present and future portions of the estate.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Tobias burns the liver, and the narrator then reports Raphael binding the devil.
2
The couple’s prayer seeks health and posterity; the maid finds them safe and asleep.
3
The account distinguishes the banquet, the two-week stay and the present and future portions of the estate.

Test your recall

Why is the grave filled after the maid returns?

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 51131–51135
8:2. And Tobias remembering the angel’s word, took out of his bag part of the liver, and laid it upon burning coals. 8:3. Then the angel Raphael took the devil, and bound him in the desert of upper Egypt.
Lines 51142–51143
8:5. For we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God.
Lines 51155–51160
8:9. And now, Lord, thou knowest, that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity, in which thy name may be blessed for ever and ever. 8:10. Sara also said: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, and let us grow old both together in health.
Lines 51175–51179
8:15. So she sent one of her maidservants, who went into the chamber, and found them safe and sound, sleeping both together. 8:16. And returning she brought the good news: and Raguel and Anna his wife blessed the Lord,
Lines 51198–51205
8:22. He caused also two fat kine, and four wethers to be killed, and a banquet to be prepared for all his neighbours, and all his friends, 8:23. And Raguel adjured Tobias, to abide with him two weeks. 8:24. And of all things which Raguel possessed, he gave one half to Tobias, and made a writing, that the half that remained should after their decease come also to Tobias.