Hannah Wept as Her Son Walked Away and Tobit Talked Her Back

The Son Set Out

He kissed his father and kissed his mother. They said to him: go in peace. The young man Tobias set out with the stranger who called himself Azariah, and with the dog that had attached itself to their party, and they walked south from Nineveh toward the Tigris. The moment they were out of sight, Hannah began to weep.

She did not stop. She went out each morning to the road and watched the place where her son had disappeared, and she wept. Every day she wept from morning until evening. Every night she could not sleep. The Book of Tobit records this with complete specificity: she ceased not to mourn for her son Tobias by night and day, and she ate no food in the daytime.

Hannah Challenges Her Husband

She said to Tobit: why did you not fear to send away our son? He is the son of our old age. He comes and goes before us. Without the money, could not our God have kept us? Why did you do this?

She was not asking to be answered. The money Tobit had deposited with Gabael in Rages was real money, ten talents of silver, and recovering it was a practical necessity. But she was weighing the money against the boy, and the calculation came out differently for her than it had for her husband. We are old, she was saying. He is all we have. The money can wait. He cannot be replaced.

The Angel Is With the Boy

Tobit answered her: fear not, my sister. He will return in peace, and your eyes will see him. Our God will send his angel with him, and he will prosper, and he will come back in good health. So do not fear for him.

He spoke from solid ground. He had sent Tobias with Raphael, though he did not know it was Raphael. He had prayed. He had received the assurance that the angel would go with the boy. His confidence stood on something real. But Hannah wept yet more.

Faith did not defeat grief at that road. Both responses were real. Tobit spoke from genuine trust, from the specific knowledge that he had prayed and the journey had been arranged by something larger than he could see. Hannah spoke from the specific knowledge of a mother who has watched her son walk south toward Media while she stands at the road watching the empty place where he was. Both things held at once. The angel was with the boy. The boy was gone.

Hannah Weeps at the Road Until He Returns

The Book of Tobit does not resolve this. Tobit speaks his faith and Hannah weeps more, and the narrative moves on to Tobias and Raphael at the Tigris. Hannah weeps every morning at the road. The account does not stay with her long enough to show her eating again, or sleeping, or finding comfort in Tobit's words. She simply weeps until her son comes back.

When Tobias does return, he comes back running, because Raphael has told him his father is waiting. The dog runs ahead of him. He reaches the gate before the rest of the party. Hannah sees him coming and runs to meet him. She falls on his neck. She says: I have seen you, my child. Now I can die and not be troubled. She had not failed at faith by weeping. Her tears were the honest record of what it cost to send a child into the world and wait.