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Atlas of Saints

Tobias

Chapter 4 · Douay–Rheims / Challoner

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Chapter IV · Location 4 of 14

Chapter 4 · Open to read

From Tobias · Douay–Rheims / Challoner (1749–1752)

What instructions and retrieval task does Tobias give his son?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The father joins burial and maternal care to keeping God’s commandments. His instructions specify alms according to means, immediate wages and help for the hungry and naked. The retrieval instruction includes recovering ten talents and returning Gabelus’s note.

Chapter breakdown

Thinking that his prayer had been heard and that he might die, Tobias called his son and gave him instructions to keep in his heart. He told him to bury his father, honor his mother throughout her life, remember the dangers she had endured in bearing him, and bury her by him after her death. He urged the son always to remember God and not consent to sin or transgress his commandments.

Tobias told him to give alms according to his ability: abundantly if he had much, willingly from little if he had little, and never to turn away from the poor. He taught that alms delivered from sin and death and gave confidence before the Most High. He warned against fornication and pride, told him to pay workers immediately, and said not to do to another what he would hate done to himself. He directed him to give bread to the hungry and clothing to the naked, place food and wine at the burial of the just rather than the wicked, seek wise counsel, and bless God for guidance in his ways and counsels. These teachings are presented as Tobias’s instructions to his son.

Finally, Tobias said that when the son was a child he had lent Gabelus at Rages ten talents of silver and taken a note of his hand. He told the son to find how to reach him, recover the money and return the note. Though they lived in poverty, he said, the son would possess good things if he feared God, avoided sin and did good.

The story inside

Context and action: The father joins burial and maternal care to keeping God’s commandments. Response: His instructions specify alms according to means, immediate wages and help for the hungry and naked. Recorded boundary: The retrieval instruction includes recovering ten talents and returning Gabelus’s note.

Lessons worth keeping

  1. 1
    The father joins burial and maternal care to keeping God’s commandments.
  2. 2
    His instructions specify alms according to means, immediate wages and help for the hungry and naked.
  3. 3
    The retrieval instruction includes recovering ten talents and returning Gabelus’s note.

Test your recall

What must the son do with Gabelus’s note when recovering the money?

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.

  1. Lines 50809–50813

    Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person: for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee. 4:8. According to thy ability be merciful.
  2. Lines 50833–50837

    If any man hath done any work for thee, immediately pay him his hire, and let not the wages of thy hired servant stay with thee at all. 4:16. See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another.
  3. Lines 50850–50859

    I tell thee also, my son, that I lent ten talents of silver, while thou wast yet a child, to Gabelus, in Rages a city of the Medes, and I have a note of his hand with me: 4:22. Now therefore inquire how thou mayst go to him, and receive of him the foresaid sum of money, and restore to him the note of his hand. 4:23. Fear not, my son: we lead indeed a poor life, but we shall have many good things if we fear God, and depart from all sin, and do that which is good.

Location: chapter 4 of 14 · 29%

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