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Tobit

About this book
Chapter 14

1 And the words of Tobit’s thanksgiving were ended, 2 and he died in peace being a hundred and twelve years old, and was buried magnificently in Nineveh. And he was sixty-two years old when he became maimed in his eyes; and after he recovered his sight he lived in prosperity and gave alms, and he still continued to bless God, and to give thanks for the greatness of God.⁠

Tobit's Farewell and the End of the Story

3 And when he was dying he called Tobias his son, and charged him, saying, Child take your children; 4 and go into Media, for I believe the word of God upon Nineveh, which Nahum spoke, that all those things will be, and will befall Assyria and Nineveh. And all the things which the prophets of Israel spoke, whom God sent, shall befall; and nothing shall be diminished of all the words; and all things shall come to pass in their seasons. And in Media shall be deliverance more than among the Assyrians and in Babylon; therefore I know and believe that all the things which God has spoken will be accomplished and will be, and there will not fall to the ground a word of the prophecies. And as for our kindred which dwell in the land of Israel, against all of them will God devise evils, and they will be carried captive from the good land, and all the land of Israel will be desolate, and Samaria and Jerusalem will be desolate, and the house of God will be in grief and be burned up for a time;⁠ 5 and God will again have mercy en them, and God will bring them back into the land of Israel, and they will again build the house, but not like the first, until the time when the time of the seasons be fulfilled; and afterward they will return, all of them, from their captivity, and build up Jerusalem with honour, and the house of God shall be built in her, even as the prophets of Israel spoke concerning her. 6 And all the nations which are in the whole earth, all shall turn and fear God truly, and all shall leave their idols,⁠ who err after their false error.⁠ 7 And they shall bless the everlasting God in righteousness. All the children of Israel that are delivered in those days, remembering God in truth, shall be gathered together and come to Jerusalem and shall dwell for ever in the land of Abraham with security, and it shall be given over to them; and they that love God in truth shall rejoice,⁠ and they that do sin and unrighteousness shall cease from all the earth. 8 And now, children, I charge you, serve God in truth and do what is pleasing in his sight; and upon your children it shall be enjoined to do alms, and that they be mindful of God and bless his name at every season in truth and with all their strength.⁠ 9 And now, child, depart from Nineveh, and do not abide here. 10 On whatever day you bury your mother with me, on that same day do not abide in its borders; for I see that there is much unrighteousness in it, and much guile is practised in it, and they are not ashamed. See, child, what things Nadab did to Ahikar that brought him up! Was he not brought down alive into the earth? and God you recompensed the shame upon his face, and Ahikar came forth into the light, and Nadab went into the eternal darkness,⁠ because he had sought to slay Ahikar.⁠ Because I did alms, he came forth from the snare of death which Nadab had set for him, and Nadab fell into the snare of death, and it destroyed him. 11 And now, children, consider what alms-giving does, and what unrighteousness does, that it slays. And behold my soul faints. And they laid him upon his bed and he died; and he was buried magnificently. 12 And when his mother died, Tobias buried her with his father, and he and his wife departed to Media and dwelt in Ecbatana with Raguel his father-in-law. 13 And he sustained their old age in honour and buried them in Ecbatana of Media, and he inherited the house of Raguel and of Tobit his father. 14 And he died, being a hundred and seventeen years old, full of renown. 15 And before he died he saw and heard of the destruction of Nineveh, and saw her captivity led into Media which Cyaxares the king of Media took captive. And he blessed God for all he did to the children of Nineveh and Assyria; and before his death he rejoiced over Nineveh, and blessed the Lord God for ever and ever. Amen.

Texts in conversation

Compare Tobit 14:6 and 1 Thessalonians 1:9

Deuterocanon · New Testament

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Summary

1 Thessalonians describes gentiles turning from idols to serve the God of Israel, presenting as a present reality what texts like Tobit 14 anticipate as part of a future age of restoration, itself based on texts like Isaiah and Zechariah.

Passages

Tobit 14:6

Deuterocanon
5 and God will again have mercy en them, and God will bring them back into the land of Israel, and they will again build the house, but not like the first, until the time when the time of the seasons be fulfilled; and afterward they will return, all of them, from their captivity, and build up Jerusalem with honour, and the house of God shall be built in her, even as the prophets of Israel spoke concerning her. 6 And all the nations which are in the whole earth, all shall turn and fear God truly, and all shall leave their idols, who err after their false error.
225–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Tobit

1 Thessalonians 1:9

New Testament
7 As a result you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For from you the message of the Lord has echoed forth not just in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place reports of your faith in God have spread, so that we do not need to say anything. 9 For people everywhere report how you welcomed us and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.
41–51 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Thessalonians

References

"... The turning of the nations to the god of Israel was yet another event anticipated at the End. Well-represented in biblical prophetic texts—Isaiah 25.6 (Israel and the nations gathered at the temple mount sharing a common meal); Micah 4.1–2; and Zechariah 8.23 — this expectation swells to a major theme in many Jewish writings of the late Second Temple period. Thus the Psalm of Solomon expects that at the End, the nations themselves will carry the exiles back to Jerusalem (7.31–41). Repudiating their idols, “all people shall direct their sight to the path of uprightness” (1 Enoch 91.14). “All the nations will turn in fear to the Lord God ... and bury their idols,” prophesies Tobit (14.6). Note: the word turning here does not mean or imply “converting.” According to these traditions, the nations do not “become” Jews at the End. In turning to Israel’s god, these eschatological gentiles preserve their particular ethnicities as gentiles. They just do not worship idols anymore. This is precisely what Paul’s gentiles have already done: “You turned to God from idols,” he tells the community of Thessalonika, “to serve a living and true god” in advance of the fast-approaching End (1 Thes 1.9–10) ..."
Paula Fredriksen, Sin: The Early History of an Idea (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012), 28.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Tobit 14:6 and 1 Thessalonians 1:9

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