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1–6. Tobit's prayer to God for deliverance from suffering. 7–15. A similar prayer of Sarah, daughter of Raguel in Ecbatana of Media. 16–17. The prayer of both was heard, and the Angel Raphael was sent to save them. Comrade 3:1 Being saddened, I wept and prayed with sorrow, saying: Comrade 3:2 You are righteous, O Lord, and all Your works and all Your ways are mercy and truth, and You judge with true and just judgment forever! Comrade 3:3 Remember me and look upon me: do not punish me for my sins and the errors of my fathers, with which they sinned before You! Tob.3:4 For they did not obey Your commandments, and You gave us up to spoil and captivity and death, and to be a proverbial reproach before all the nations among whom we are scattered. Tob.3:5 And truly many and righteous are Your judgments to do to me according to my sins and the sins of my fathers, because they did not keep Your commandments and did not act in righteousness before You. Tov.3:6 Therefore, do with me what is pleasing to You; commanded to take my spirit so that I would be resolved and turn into the earth, for it is better for me to die than to live, since I hear false reproaches, and the sorrow in me is deep! Command me to free me from this burden to the eternal abode and do not turn Your face away from me. 1–6. Under the weight of disasters: blindness, poverty, reproaches from his wife, Tobit makes a fiery prayer. This prayer in general and in individual details has a strictly biblical character and in many cases has many analogies for itself in other biblical places, especially in the various prayers of famous sacred historical figures contained in the Bible. Thus, Tobit’s humble confession of the truth and mercy of all God’s deeds and ways (v. 2) both in thought and partly in letter resembles, for example, the words of the psalmist Ps. XXIV:10; the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. XXII:1); Prophet Daniel (Dan. IV, etc.). The belief that descendants are sometimes punished for the sins of fathers (v. 3), as is known, runs through the entire Old Testament, found expression in the Mosaic legislation (Exod. XX:5; Num. XIV:18), was confirmed in various historical facts (for example, for the sin of Ham his son Canaan was cursed, for the sin of David his son died by Bathsheba; the grave consequences of Solomon’s sins had to be borne by his son Rehoboam), and although the extremes and abuses of this belief caused prophetic condemnation and refutation (Jer. XXXI:29; Ezek. XVIII:1–4), however, it remained among the Jewish people until the time of the New Testament, as can be seen from the judgment of the apostles about the man born blind (John IX, 2). In relation to the fate of Israel, this belief had a special meaning (v. 4, fn. Deut. XXIII:15), as, for example, the prophet Daniel confessed it, like Tobit (vv. 4–5) (Dan. IX:4–13). Finally, Tobit’s request for death (v. 6) has an analogy in the prayers of Job (Job VII:15), the prophet Elijah (1 Kings XIX:4, cf. Interpretations of the Bible, vol. II), etc., although, of course, this request has only relative value and significance (cf. Jonah IV next). It goes without saying, however, that these similarities between the book of Tobit and other biblical books cannot speak in favor of the opinion (Eichhorn and others) that in the book. Tobit we have free imitation or development of messages from other biblical books. Comrade 3:7 On that very day it happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, in Ecbatana of Media, suffered reproaches from her father’s handmaids Comrade 3:8 because she was given to seven husbands, but Asmodeus, the evil spirit, killed them before they were with her as a wife. They said to her: Aren’t you ashamed that you strangled your husbands? You already had seven, but you didn’t call yourself by the name of any of them. Comrade 3:9 Why beat us for them? They died: follow them too, so that we don’t see your son or daughter forever! Comrade 3:10 When she heard this, she was very saddened, so that she decided to take her own life, but she thought: I am alone with my father; if I do this, he will be dishonored, and I will bring his old age with sorrow to the underworld. Tov.3:11 And she began to pray at the window and said: Blessed are You, O Lord my God, and blessed is Your holy and glorious name forever: let all Your creatures bless You forever! Tov.3:12 And now I turn my eyes and my face to You, O Lord; Comrade 3:13 I pray, take me from this land and do not let me hear any more reproaches! Comrade 3:14 You know, Lord, that I am clean from all sin with my husband Comrade 3:15 And she did not dishonor my name, nor the name of my father, in the land of my captivity; I am my father’s only begotten, and he has no son who could succeed him, no close brother, no brother’s son for whom I could save myself as a wife: I have already lost seven. Why should I live? And if You do not want to put me to death, then deign to look upon me and have mercy on me, so that I no longer hear reproach! 7–15. Likewise, the coincidence in time and content of the prayer of Tobit and the prayer of Sarah, daughter of Raguel (v. 7 d.), as well as the general close similarity in the fate of these persons: piety, suffering, undeserved reproaches, etc., does not represent anything artificial and contrived. “This similarity... is not so great that life cannot present similar cases. The simultaneity of the prayer of Tobit and Sarah for liberation from suffering or the sending of death does not represent anything impossible” (Prof. Drozdov, p. 306). Instead of Ecbatana (Art. 7 in Greek, Slav., Russian) in the Vulgate they are called Para (in Rages, civitate Medorum), about which in Vulg. it is noted that the Ragas are located on Mount Ecbatanis (quae posita est in monte Ecbatanis). Sarah's sevenfold marriage (v. 8) is a rare phenomenon, but not impossible (Matthew XXII: 25–32); although, as an extraordinary event, it was the subject of criticism from Sarah’s maids, who falsely accused her of murder (vv. 8–9). The real culprit of the instant death of each of Sarah's seven husbands (each time before their actual marital cohabitation with her) was the evil spirit or demon Asmodeus (' Ασμοδαίος τό πονηρόν δαιμόνιον), v. 8. They tried to explain the meaning of this name from the Aryan root, but these attempts are doubtful and pointless, since the word Asmodeus is satisfactorily explained from the Hebrew-Aramaic root: shamad to destroy, destroy, so Asmodeus is a destroyer, a destroyer, which is fully consistent with the destructive activity of Asmodeus, as depicted in the book of Tobit (Tob. 3:8, 4:13-14), and finds a complete analogy in the name of the evil spirit of the destroyer Abaddon, in Greek Apollyon, Rev. IX:11. The main point in the concept of Asmodeus, according to this etymology, is destruction for people - a fundamental feature in general in the biblical concept of the evil spirit - Satan and demons. However, the attempt of some scientists (Benfey, Dillmann, Langin, Rome, Kogug, etc.) to connect the name of Asmodeus with one of the evil spirits or maidens of the Avesta - aeshma-daeva, the demon of carnal passion - is not without a certain degree of probability and a certain amount of significance, since this is exactly what, by the way, Asmodeus appears in the book of Tobit (VI: 14). (See A. Glagolev, Old Testament biblical teaching about angels. Kiev, 1900, pp. 690–695; Prof. Drozdov, op. cit. pp. 381–393.). Sarah performed her fiery prayer “at the window” (v. 11), glorified: at the window, Greek: προς τη θυρίδι, “in the upper room”, είς το υπερώον (no Sinaitic code. LXX), i.e. on the mezzanine on the flat roof of the house, which room was usually used for rest, solitude and prayer (Dan. VI:10; Acts XX:8–9, I:13–14). Standing in prayer at an open window (Dan. VI:10, Heb. 11) towards the holy land, Jerusalem and the church (1 Kings VIII:44) was an ancient custom, established especially during the captivity, and legitimized by the traditional law of Judaism (see Interpretations of the Bible, II, p. 463). The content of Sarah’s prayer (vv. 11–15), in addition to general biblical ideas, contains direct references to the individual features of Sarah’s life and suffering (vv. 14–15), especially her preservation of chastity (vv. 14). Tov.3:16 And the prayer of both was heard before the glory of the great God, and Raphael was sent to heal both: Tob.3:17 To remove the thorn from Tobit and give Sarah, the daughter of Raguil, as a wife to Tobiah, the son of Tobit, having bound Asmodeus, the evil spirit; for Tobiah is destined to inherit her. - And at the same time Tobit, upon his return, entered his house, and Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, came down from her upper room. 16–17. The prayer of both sufferers, Tobit and Sarah, was heard. In the accepted Greek text LXX and glory. in Art. 16 erroneously reads ενώπιον τής δόξης τού μεγάλου Ραφαήλ καί απεστάλη - “and the Lord heard the prayer of both, before the glory of the great Raphael, and sent by..." But in code 64, 243, 248, in Complete. and Ald. ed., as well as in the Sinai list, after μεγάλου comes Θεού, and the union και comes before Ραφαήλ or before απεστάλη. Russian Synod, the translation correctly conveys the idea of ​​the original text. The name of the angel Raphael, as one of the highest seven angels standing before God (Tob. 12:15), is found only in the book of Tobit and later in the so-called book of Enoch (chap. IX:1; X:4; XX:3; XL:9) (see Das Buch Henoch, ubers und erklart von A. Dillmann and - “The Book of Enoch Historical-Critical Study, Russian trans. and explanation of the apocryphal book of Enoch" (Kazan, 1886) prof. A.V. The completed biblical writing does not know the names of angels. Only in the book of the prophet Daniel (chap. VIII, IX, X, XII) are two names of angels mentioned for the first time - Gabriel and Michael. Just as these two names, being proper names, have, however, in their meaning, a common meaning - they express different aspects of the relationship of angels to God, the world and people (see A. Glagolev. Old Testament biblical teaching about angels, pp. 361-377), so the name Raphael, coming from Hebrew. “rapha”, “to heal, heal”, and “el”, “God”, indicates the mission for which Raphael was sent by God to earth (III:17; XII:14), namely healing (ίασασθαι) (v. 17) or delivering Tobit from blindness, Sarah from those mental illnesses or suffering that the demon caused her. And in the book of Enoch (chap. XL:9) healing is attributed to Raphael, as being placed over all diseases and over all wounds of the sons of men. But in the book. Enoch's idea of ​​the angel Raphael is mixed with the later angelological views of Judaism, while in the book of Tobit the pure biblical teaching about angels is preserved, with the addition of some details regarding their external appearance on earth (chap. V: 4 ff.) and the position of Raphael in the heavenly hierarchy (XII: 15). See A. Glagolev. Old Testament biblical teaching about angels, p. 407–410, and prof. Drozdova, s. 368–381.