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Introduction
This Book takes its name from the holy man Tobias, whose wonderful virtues are herein recorded. It contains most excellent documents of great piety, extraordinary patience, and of a perfect resignation to the will of God. His humble prayer was heard, and the angel Raphael was sent to relieve him: he is thankful and praises the Lord, calling on the children of Israel to do the same. Having lived to the age of one hundred and two years, he exhorts his son and grandsons to piety, foretells the destruction of Ninive and the rebuilding of Jerusalem: he dies happily.
Chapter 2
[15] Kings: So Job's three friends are here called, because they were princes in their respective territories.
Chapter 3
[7] Rages: In the Greek it is Ecbatana, which was also called Rages. For there were two cities in Media of the name of Rages. Raguel dwelt in one of them, and Gabelus in the other.
Chapter 5
[18] Azarias: The angel took the form of Azarias: and therefore might call himself by the name of the man whom he personated. Azarias, in Hebrew, signifies the help of God, and Ananias the grace of God.
Chapter 6
[8] Its heart: The liver (ver. 19) God was pleased to give these things a virtue against those proud spirits, to make them, who affected to be like the Most High, subject to such mean corporeal creatures as instruments of his power.
[15] Hell: That is, to the place where the souls of the good were kept before the coming of Christ.
Chapter 11
[9] The dog: This may seem a very minute circumstance to be recorded in sacred history: but as we learn from our Saviour, St. Matt. 5. 18, there are iotas and tittles in the word of God: that is to say, things that appear minute, but which have indeed a deep and mysterious meaning in them.
Chapter 13
[11] Jerusalem: What is prophetically delivered here, and in the following chapter, with relation to Jerusalem, is partly to be understood of the rebuilding of the city after the captivity: and partly of the spiritual Jerusalem, which is the church of Christ, and the eternal Jerusalem in heaven.
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