Texts in Conversation
Tobit 13 echoes Deuteronomy 30 and the promise that God will gather the exiles if they return to him with full obedience. Both describe the end of the exile as a response to national repentance, with Tobit using this language to frame its own hope.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 30:2
Hebrew Bible
1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses I have set before you, you will reflect upon them in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you. 2 Then if you and your descendants turn to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole mind and being just as I am commanding you today, 3 the Lord your God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you. He will turn and gather you from all the peoples among whom he has scattered you. 4 Even if your exiles are in the most distant land, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tobit 13:5
Deuterocanon
4 And there he has shown you his greatness; And extol him before all the living. Because he is our Lord, and he our God, and he our Father, Yes, he is God to all the ages: 5 He will chastise you for your iniquities, And will show mercy to you all. 6 When you turn to him out of all the nations Wherever you shall be scattered, With your whole heart and with your whole soul, to do truth before him, Then he will turn to you, and will no longer hide his face from you. And now see what he has done with you, And give him thanks with your whole mouth, And bless the Lord of righteousness, And exalt the everlasting King. I, in the land of my captivity, give him thanks, And show his strength and majesty to nations of sinners.) Turn, you sinners, and do righteousness before him. Who can tell if he will accept you and have mercy on you?
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The narrative draws extensively on older traditions. Apart from a multitude of allusions to single biblical phrases, previous texts often function as subtexts in such a way that an earlier passage serves as a matrix for identical twists, thematic links, and allusions. In this context, Genesis 24 is of outstanding importance. In addition to these correspondences, references to Deuteronomy also play an important role (see especially the reception of Deuteronomy 30:2–33:5 in Tobit 13:5–6). Tobit’s eschatological hymn in Tobit 13 and his outlook into his people’s future in Tobit 14:4–7 contain numerous allusions to the salvation prophecies of Deutero and Trito-Isaiah as well as to other prophetic traditions. Sapiential tradition, as it appears especially in the speeches in Tobit 4 and Tobit 12, can be traced back to the wisdom teaching of Proverbs and Sirach. Tobit focuses on this when the value of almsgiving is emphasized ..."
Beate Ego, “The Book of Tobit in the Story of Cornelius in Acts 10,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha, ed. Gerbern S. Oegema (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 306–334.
* 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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