Why does Tobias delegate the journey to Gabelus?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Tobias delegates money recovery while explaining his father’s concern and Raguel’s adjuration. Raphael returns the note, receives all the money and brings Gabelus to the wedding. Gabelus’s words concerning descendants are a blessing, not proof of a future outcome.

Chapter breakdown

Tobias called the guide whom he still took to be a man, addressing him as Brother Azarias. He said that even giving himself as a servant would not repay the guide’s care. He asked him to take beasts and servants to Gabelus at Rages, return the note of hand, collect the money and invite Gabelus to the wedding. Tobias explained that his father counted the days and would be afflicted by further delay, while he could not disregard Raguel’s adjuration.

Raphael took four of Raguel’s servants and two camels to Rages. He found Gabelus, gave him his note and received all the money. He told him what had been done concerning the younger Tobias and brought him to the wedding. This Rages, where Gabelus lived, is distinct from Raguel’s residence under the edition’s earlier two-Rages annotation.

At Raguel’s house, Gabelus found Tobias at the table. The account says “he leaped up,” that they kissed each other, and that Gabelus wept and blessed God. Gabelus blessed Tobias as the son of a good and just man who feared God and gave alms. He prayed for blessing upon Tobias’s wife and parents and that the couple would see descendants to the third and fourth generation. All answered Amen and went to the feast, which they celebrated in the fear of the Lord. The blessing is a prayer, not a prediction establishing the descendants’ future.

The story inside

Context and action: Tobias delegates money recovery while explaining his father’s concern and Raguel’s adjuration. Response: Raphael returns the note, receives all the money and brings Gabelus to the wedding. Recorded boundary: Gabelus’s words concerning descendants are a blessing, not proof of a future outcome.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Tobias delegates money recovery while explaining his father’s concern and Raguel’s adjuration.
2
Raphael returns the note, receives all the money and brings Gabelus to the wedding.
3
Gabelus’s words concerning descendants are a blessing, not proof of a future outcome.

Test your recall

What two concerns does Tobias give when asking the guide to collect 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.

Lines 51216–51222
9:2. If I should give myself to be thy servant I should not make a worthy return for thy care. 9:3. However, I beseech thee, to take with thee beasts and servants, and to go to Gabelus to Rages the city of the Medes: and to restore to him his note of hand, and receive of him the money, and desire him to come to my wedding.
Lines 51224–51228
9:4. For thou knowest that my father numbereth the days: and if I stay one day more, his soul will be afflicted. 9:5. And indeed thou seest how Raguel hath adjured me, whose adjuring I cannot despise.
Lines 51230–51232
9:6. Then Raphael took four of Raguel’s servants, and two camels, and went to Rages the city of the Medes: and finding Gabelus, gave him his note of hand, and received of him all the money.
Lines 51241–51248
9:9. And said: The God of Israel bless thee, because thou art the son of a very good and just man, and that feareth God, and doth almsdeeds: 9:10. And may a blessing come upon thy wife and upon your parents. 9:11. And may you see your children, and your children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation: and may your seed be blessed by the God of Israel, who reigneth for ever and ever.