Tobit 8

¹ When they had finished eating and drinking and it seemed time to go to bed, the young man was taken from the dining room to the bedroom.

² Tobias remembered Raphael’s advice; he went to his bag, took the fish’s heart and liver out of it and put some on the burning incense.

³ The reek of the fish distressed the demon, who fled through the air to Egypt. Raphael pursued him there, and bound and shackled him at once.

⁴ The parents meanwhile had gone out and shut the door behind them. Tobias rose from the bed, and said to Sarah, ‘Get up, my sister! You and I must pray and petition our Lord to win his grace and his protection.’

⁵ She stood up, and they began praying for protection, and this was how he began: ‘You are blessed, O God of our fathers; blessed, too, is your name for ever and ever. Let the heavens bless you and all things you have made for evermore.

⁶ It was you who created Adam, you who created Eve his wife to be his help and support; and from these two the human race was born. It was you who said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; let us make him a helpmate like himself”.

⁷ And so I do not take my sister for any lustful motive; I do it in singleness of heart. Be kind enough to have pity on her and on me and bring us to old age together.’

⁸ And together they said, ‘Amen, Amen’,

⁹ and lay down for the night. But Raguel rose and called his servants, who came and helped him to dig a grave.

¹⁰ He had thought, ‘Heaven grant he does not die! We should be overwhelmed with ridicule and shame.’

¹¹ When the grave was finished, Raguel went back to the house, called his wife

¹² and said, ‘Will you send a maid to the room to see if Tobias is still alive? For if he is dead, we may be able to bury him without anyone else knowing.’

¹³ The maid was called, the lamp lit and the door opened; the maid went in. She found the two fast asleep;

¹⁴ she came out again and whispered, ‘He is not dead; all is well’.

¹⁵ Then Raguel blessed the God of heaven with these words: ‘You are blessed, my God,

¹⁶ ‘You are blessed for having made me glad. What I feared has not happened; instead You have treated us with mercy beyond all measure.

¹⁷ ‘You are blessed for taking pity on this only son, this only daughter. Grant them, Master, your grace and your protection; let them live out their lives in happiness and in grace.’

¹⁸ And he made his servants fill the grave in before dawn broke.

¹⁹ He told his wife to make plenty of bread; he went to his flock, brought back two oxen and four sheep and gave orders for them to be cooked; and preparations began.

²⁰ He called Tobias and said, ‘I will not hear of your leaving here for a fortnight. You are to stay where you are, eating and drinking, with me. You will make my daughter happy again after all her troubles.

²¹ After that, take away a half of all I have, and go without let or hindrance back to your father. When my wife and I are dead you will have the other half. Courage, my boy! I am your father, and Edna is your mother. We are your parents in future, as we are your sister’s. Courage, my son!’