Tobias's Journey Rites Of Passage Comments

Tobit's long hymn of praise to God in chapter thirteen uses language and imagery characteristic of such biblical paens. It is similar to Victory Hymns in historical books and the more militant Psalms. It is the way the writer signals us that ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. The very next line is: TOBIT DIED WHEN HE WAS A HUNDRED AND TWELVE YEARS OLD AND RECEIVED AN HONORABLE BURIAL IN NINEVEH. How ironic.The man who surreptiously buried disgarded corpses receives a sumptuous burial. Had the world changed so much for the better in his later years?

Now let us return to what seems to be the nadir of Tobit's fortunes.
Reduced to penury because of his good works, abandoned by his Assyrian masters, Tobit's fate seems to be fixed in a permanent fall from wordly success. So it would seem to anyone who looks with mortal eyes, and sees just what there is to see. So far in the story Tobit has been doing God's work on his own initiative with his native human ability, and that may well be the case. But from this point on, there will be divine players in the story and God's Providence presiding
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