Nunc ergo filii, audite me, et nolite manere hic : sed quacumque die sepelieritis matrem vestram circa me in uno sepulchro, ex eo dirigite gressus vestros ut exeatis hinc :
The Book of Tobit 14:12 Commentary
1 historical voiceHow the Church has read Tobit 14:12 across two millennia — Matthew Henry, John Calvin, Augustine of Hippo, John Chrysostom and more, gathered verse by verse from the public domain.
Voices across the centuries
Church Fathers 1
Commentary on Tobit
So Tobias left Nineveh with his wife, sons, and grandsons, and returned to his in-laws, finding them in good old age. This is what the Lord does daily, and will do until the end of the world: He turns away from those whom He recognizes are not His own, to visit and enlighten the hearts of those whom He has predestined to eternal life. He finds these in good old age, rejoicing that they have long been devoted to good works by His grace. Otherwise, He sees them in bad old age and passes them by, as those who, living far from the divine, are not mature in counsel, not venerable with the whiteness of good action like gray hair, but are bent under the burden of vices. Of such, Isaiah says: "The child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed" (Isa. LXV). Rightly, they will be subject to a curse for their sins, who, although living many years, never cared to abandon the levity of a childish mind.