Tobit 12

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

King James Version

1Then Tobit called his son Tobias, and said unto him, My son, see that the man have his wages, which went with thee, and thou must give him more.

Then Tobit called his son Tobias, and said to him: My son, see that the man have his wages, who went with you, and you must give him more — the healed father's first business: the debt to the guide, and more than the debt.

2And Tobias said unto him, O father, it is no harm to me to give him half of those things which I have brought:

And Tobias said to him: O father, it is no harm to me to give him half of those things which I have brought — gratitude measuring itself against the whole increase, and finding half not too much.

3For he hath brought me again to thee in safety, and made whole my wife, and brought me the money, and likewise healed thee.

For he has brought me again to you in safety, and made whole my wife, and brought me the money, and likewise healed you — the account rendered in four mercies: return, marriage, substance, sight.

4Then the old man said, It is due unto him.

Then the old man said: It is due unto him — justice confirming what gratitude proposed.

5So he called the angel, and he said unto him, Take half of all that ye have brought and go away in safety.

So he called the angel, and he said to him: Take half of all that you have brought and go away in safety — half of everything offered to the fellow-traveller hired for a drachm a day.

6Then he took them both apart, and said unto them, Bless God, praise him, and magnify him, and praise him for the things which he hath done unto you in the sight of all that live. It is good to praise God, and exalt his name, and honourably to shew forth the works of God; therefore be not slack to praise him.

Then he took them both apart, and said to them: Bless God, praise Him, and magnify Him, and praise Him for the things which He has done unto you in the sight of all that live. It is good to praise God, and exalt His name, and honourably to show forth the works of God; therefore be not slack to praise Him — the guide's first word at his unveiling is not of himself but of praise: the works shown forth honourably, in the sight of all that live.

7It is good to keep close the secret of a king, but it is honourable to reveal the works of God. Do that which is good, and no evil shall touch you.

It is good to keep close the secret of a king, but it is honourable to reveal the works of God. Do that which is good, and no evil shall touch you — the keeping and the telling each in its place; and goodness as the state's true guard.

8Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with unrighteousness. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold:

Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness. A little with righteousness — right relation to the divine order — is better than much with unrighteousness. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold — the father's counsels of chapter four returned from heaven's side, confirmed by the ministering idea itself.

9For alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life:

For alms deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin — all error. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life — mercy-giving as the purging of error and the filling of the state with life.

10But they that sin are enemies to their own life.

But they that sin — that act apart from the divine order — are enemies to their own life — error named as self-enmity: no rival power, only the state set against itself.

11Surely I will keep close nothing from you. For I said, It was good to keep close the secret of a king, but that it was honourable to reveal the works of God.

Surely I will keep close nothing from you. For I said, It was good to keep close the secret of a king, but that it was honourable to reveal the works of God — the unveiling itself justified: this telling is the honourable kind.

12Now therefore, when thou didst pray, and Sara thy daughter in law, I did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the Holy One: and when thou didst bury the dead, I was with thee likewise.

Now therefore, when you did pray, and Sara your daughter-in-law, I did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the Holy One; and when you did bury the dead, I was with you likewise — the two prayers of chapter three and the burials of chapters one and two gathered into one witness: the ministering idea was present at every mercy it now recounts.

13And when thou didst not delay to rise up, and leave thy dinner, to go and cover the dead, thy good deed was not hid from me: but I was with thee.

And when you did not delay to rise up, and leave your dinner, to go and cover the dead, your good deed was not hid from me; but I was with you — the interrupted feast of Pentecost remembered in heaven as the hinge of the whole story.

14And now God hath sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter in law.

And now God has sent me to heal you and Sara your daughter-in-law — the sending named at last: one healing for two houses.

15I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.

I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, who present the prayers of the saints, and who go in and out before the glory of the Holy One — seven, the completeness of the cycle; the angels as the divine ideas that carry the prayers of the set-apart states into the manifested weight of the Presence, and return with the answer.

16Then they were both troubled, and fell upon their faces: for they feared.

Then they were both troubled, and fell upon their faces; for they feared — the unveiling striking the house to the ground: the surface of awareness laid flat before what walked beside them unrecognised.

17But he said unto them, Fear not, for it shall go well with you; praise God therefore.

But he said unto them: Fear not, for it shall go well with you; praise God therefore — fear answered, as always, by praise.

18For not of any favour of mine, but by the will of our God I came; wherefore praise him for ever.

For not of any favour of mine, but by the will of our God I came; wherefore praise Him for ever — the ministering idea refusing the credit, and returning it whole to the Source.

19All these days I did appear unto you; but I did neither eat nor drink, but ye did see a vision.

All these days I did appear unto you; but I did neither eat nor drink, but you did see a vision — truth seen by the inner eye while the outer senses rest: the companion of the road confessed as vision, not flesh.

20Now therefore give God thanks: for I go up to him that sent me; but write all things which are done in a book.

Now therefore give God thanks; for I go up to Him that sent me; but write all things which are done in a book — the idea returning to its Source, and the story commanded into writing, that the works may be shown forth.

21And when they arose, they saw him no more.

And when they arose, they saw him no more — the form withdrawn when the work is done; the idea abides, the appearance does not.

22Then they confessed the great and wonderful works of God, and how the angel of the Lord had appeared unto them.

Then they confessed the great and wonderful works of God, and how the angel of the indwelling LORD had appeared unto them — the book closing its own account: confession, where complaint began.

Companion volume to The Why Bible — the King James Apocrypha, rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.