Tobit 6

CHAPTER 6

¹And Tobias went forth, and a dog pursued him [or an hound followed him] , and he dwelled, or abode , in the first dwelling of his journey beside the flood of Tigris.

²And he went forth to wash his feet; and lo! a great fish went out to devour him.

³Which fish Tobias dreaded, and cried with great voice, and said, Sire, this fish assaileth me.

⁴And the angel said to him, Take the fish by the gill, or by the jaw , [or Catch his fin] , and draw him to thee. And when he had done this thing, he drew the fish into a dry place, and it began to sprawl before his feet.

⁵Then the angel said to him, Draw out the entrails of this fish [or Open this fish] , and keep to thee his heart and gall and maw; for these things be needful to medicines profitably.

⁶And when he had done this thing, he roasted the flesh thereof, and they took with them in the way; and they salted other things, that should suffice to them in the way, till they came into Rages, the city of Media.

⁷Then Tobias asked the angel, and said to him, Azarias, brother, I beseech thee, that thou say to me, what remedy these things shall have, which thou hast commanded to be kept of the fish.

⁸And the angel answered, and said to him, If thou puttest a little part of his heart upon hot coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kind of fiends [or devils] , either from man either from woman, so that it nigh no more to them.

⁹And the gall is much worthy to anoint eyes, in which is a web [or rime] , and they shall be healed [or be whole] .

¹⁰And Tobias said to him, Where wilt thou, that we dwell, or abide ?

¹¹And the angel answered, and said, Here is a man, Raguel by name, a nigh man of thy lineage, and he hath a daughter, Sarah by name; but neither he hath male child neither any other female or maid child, except her.

¹²All his chattel [or his substance] is due to thee; and it behooveth thee have her to thy wife.

¹³Therefore ask thou her of her father; and he shall give her a wife to thee.

¹⁴Then Tobias answered, and said, I have heard, that she was given to seven husbands, and all they be dead; but I have heard this also, that a fiend [or a devil] killed them.

¹⁵And therefore I dreaded, lest peradventure also these things befall to me; and since I am one alone to my father and mother, I put down with sorrow their eld age to hells/and since I am an only son to my father and mother, I dread to put down to hell their eld age with dreariness.

¹⁶Then the angel Raphael said to him, Hear thou me, and I shall show to thee, who they be, over whom the fiend [or the devil] hath mastery;

¹⁷certainly the fiend hath power over them, that take so their weddings [or wedlock] , that they close out God from them, and from their mind; the fiend [or the devil] hath power over them, that give so attention to their lechery [or lusts] , as an horse and a mule do , that have none under-standing.

¹⁸But when thou hast taken her to wife , enter into thy bed-place, and by three days be thou continent from her, or be thou chaste abstaining thee from her in all fleshly lust , and to none other thing thou shalt give attention with her, but only to prayers.

¹⁹Forsooth in that first night, when the maw of the fish is burnt, the fiend [or the devil] shall be driven away.

²⁰And in the second night, thou shalt be received [or admitted] in the coupling, or marriage , of holy patriarchs.

²¹And in the third night, thou shalt get blessing, that whole [or sound] sons be engendered of you.

²²But when the third night is passed, thou shalt take the virgin [or the maiden] with the dread of the Lord, and thou shalt be led more by the love of begetting of children than by lust, that in the seed of Abraham thou get blessing in sons.