Tobit, 12

1. When the wedding feast was over, Tobit called his son Tobias and said, 'My son, you ought to think about paying the amount due to your fellow traveller; give him more than the figure agreed on.'

2. 'Father,' he replied, 'how much am I to give him for his help? Even if I give him half the goods he brought back with me, I shall not be the loser.

3. He has brought me back safe and sound, he has cured my wife, he has brought the money back too, and now he has cured you as well. How much am I to give him for all this?'

4. Tobit said, 'He has richly earned half what he brought back'.

5. So Tobias called his companion and said, 'Take half of what you brought back, in payment for all you have done, and go in peace.'

6. Then Raphael took them both aside and said, 'Bless God, utter his praise before all the living for the favour he has shown you. Bless and extol his name. Proclaim before all people the deeds of God as they deserve, and never tire of giving him thanks.

7. It is right to keep the secret of a king, yet right to reveal and publish the works of God as they deserve. Do what is good, and no evil can befall you.

8. 'Prayer with fasting and alms with uprightness are better than riches with iniquity. Better to practise almsgiving than to hoard up gold.

9. Almsgiving saves from death and purges every kind of sin. Those who give alms have their fill of days;

10. those who commit sin and do evil bring harm on themselves.

11. 'I am going to tell you the whole truth, hiding nothing from you. I have already told you that it is right to keep the secret of a king, yet right too to reveal in a worthy way the words of God.

12. So you must know that when you and Sarah were at prayer, it was I who offered your supplications before the glory of the Lord and who read them; so too when you were burying the dead.

13. When you did not hesitate to get up and leave the table to go and bury a dead man, I was sent to test your faith,

14. and at the same time God sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah.

15. I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ever ready to enter the presence of the glory of the Lord.'

16. They were both overwhelmed with awe; they fell on their faces in terror.

17. But the angel said, 'Do not be afraid; peace be with you. Bless God for ever.

18. As far as I was concerned, when I was with you, my presence was not by any decision of mine, but by the will of God; he is the one whom you must bless as long as you live, he the one that you must praise.

19. You thought you saw me eating, but that was appearance and no more.

20. Now bless the Lord on earth and give thanks to God. I am about to return to him who sent me from above. Write down all that has happened.' And he rose in the air.

21. When they stood up again, he was no longer visible. They praised God with hymns; they thanked him for having performed such wonders; had not an angel of God appeared to them?