Texts in Conversation
Tobit’s plea for death echoes Elijah’s lament in 1 Kings, where he asks to die after reaching a point of despair. This connects Tobit with the patterns of the Hebrew Bible and depicts his suffering in continuity with Israel's prophets.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Kings 19:4
Hebrew Bible
2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, “May the gods judge me severely if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!” 3 Elijah was afraid, so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there, 4 while he went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He went and sat down under a shrub and asked the Lord to take his life: “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.” 5 He stretched out and fell asleep under the shrub. Suddenly an angelic messenger touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tobit 3:6
Deuterocanon
5 And now your many judgments are true in exacting from me the penalty of my sins, because we did not keep your commandments and did not walk truly before you. 6 And now deal with me according to your pleasure, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be released from off the earth and become earth: for it is more profitable for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and there is much sorrow in me. Lord, command that I be released from this distress, let me go to the everlasting place, and do not turn your face, O Lord, away from me. For it is more profitable for me to die, than to see much distress in my life, and not to hear reproaches.
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... A major characteristic of [Tobit] is the allusion to earlier biblical texts. In his prayer, Tobit is so discouraged he prays to die. Here he is following the example of noble predecessors: Moses (Numbers 11:15) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:4; see also Jonah 4:3). At the end of the story Tobit, like Moses, dies outside the Promised Land but looks forward to its future (see Deuteronomy 31:7-8; 32:44-52). The meeting between Tobiah and the family of Raguel (7:1-6) is patterned on the meeting between Jacob and the family of Laban in Genesis (Genesis 29:4-14). In Tobiah’s prayer he suggests that he and Sarah are modeled on Adam and Eve (Tobit 8:6). Raphael’s character echoes that of earlier biblical angels: the angel who appeared to Manoah and his wife who asks, “Why do you ask my name?” and who also ascends to heaven (Judges 13:18, 20; Tobit 5:12; 12:20) ..."
Daniel Durken, ed., The New Collegeville Bible Commentary: In One Volume (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017), 732.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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