3:1 Then I being grieved did weep, and in my sorrow prayed, saying, 2 O Lord, you are just, and all your works and all your ways are mercy and truth, and you judge truly and justly forever. 3 Remember me, and look on me, punish me not for my sins and ignorances, and the sins of my fathers, who have sinned before you: 4 For they obeyed not your commandments: wherefore you have delivered us for a spoil, and unto captivity, and unto death, and for a proverb of reproach to all the nations among whom we are dispersed.

HILARY. So let us firstly be mindful that he , who is the Lord of all, is just, and that his judgments are proper. Why then might he be unjust toward his own, in those whom he himself has begotten, why would he be unjust The extent of his goodness does not permit it to be considered of him. He has begotten us not to wrongdoing, not to anguish for the nature of our origin, but if it is such, whatever we suffer, happens out of the judgment of his goodness. [Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on Psalms 118:137-138]“”

CHRYSOSTOM. Christ and Moses had suffered the like. So then ease is [the portion] of sin; but to be reproached, of Christ. For what then do you wish “The reproach of Christ,” or ease “By faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king” (Heb. 11:27) [Chrysostom, Hom. 26.5 on Heb. NPNF s.1 v.14]

3:5 And now your judgments are many and true: deal with me according to my sins and my fathers’: because we have not kept your commandments, neither have walked in truth before you. 6 Now therefore deal with me as seems best unto you, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved, and become dirt: for it is profitable for me to die rather than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and have much sorrow: command therefore that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place: turn not your face away from me.

AUGUSTINE. And who is so absurd, and blinded by contentious strong opinions, as to be audacious enough to affirm that in the midst of the calamities of this mortal state, God’s people, or even one single saint, does live, or has ever lived, or shall ever live, without tears or pain—the fact being that the holier a man is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much the more abundant is the tearfulness of his supplication Are not these the utterances of a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem: “My tears have been my meat day and night;” and “Every night shall I make my bed to swim; with my tears shall I water my couch;” and “My groaning is not hid from You;” [Augustine, City of God, 20:17 NFNP s1 v.2]

3:7 It came to pass the same day, that in Ecbatane a city of Media Sara the daughter of Raguel was also reproached by her father’s maids; 8 Because that she had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmodeus the evil spirit had killed, before they had lain with her. Do you not know, said they, that you have strangled your husbands you have had already seven husbands, neither was you named after any of them.

BEDE. Sara signifies figuratively the company of nations all of whose teachers knew so much about life in this world, which is formed in seven days, yet knew nothing to say about eternal life. For this reason the devil held them all hostage, inasmuch as they were sold into idolatry to himself by his faithfulness after the enemy had been overcome. Just as Tobit took Sara as his bride by the teaching and assistance of the archangel after the demon had been bound. The angel fittingly signifies our Savior’s divinity. [Bede, Allegorica interpretatio in Tobiam PL91.926C ]

PSEUDO CHRYSOSTOM. A woman who does not say no to the pleasures of her throat also all the more does not agree to resist her lust, as even the apostle says, “She who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. (1 Tim. 5:6)” She is not fickle, a jokester, a singer, a lover of foul words, as girls for the most part are likely to be, who gladly either speak such things or hear them. If they are the more shameless type, they gladly either speak, but if they still have a sense of shame, they delight to hear such things, even if they are too embarrassed actually to say such things. She has not looked down on her husband, nor has she stared directly at him. Those things are evidence of a prostitute, as Solomon says, “A wife’s harlotry shows in her lustful eyes. (Sir. 26:9)” [Opus Imperfectum, Homilies on Matthew, PG 56 v.6 Hom.1]6

1:9 Wherefore do you beat us for them if they be dead, go your ways after them, let us never see of you either son or daughter. 10 When she heard these things, she was very sorrowful, so that she thought to have strangled herself; and she said, I am the only daughter of my father, and if I do this, it shall be a reproach unto him, and I shall bring his old age with sorrow unto the grave. 11 Then she prayed toward the window, and said, Blessed are you, O Lord my God, and your holy and glorious name is blessed and honorable forever: let all your works praise you forever. 12 And now, O Lord, I set my eyes and my face toward you, 13 And say, Take me out of the earth, that I may hear no more the reproach. 14 You know, Lord, that I am pure from all sin with man,

3:15 And that I never polluted my name, nor the name of my father, in the land of my captivity: I am the only daughter of my father, neither has he any child to be his heir, neither any near kinsman, nor any son of his alive, to whom I may keep myself for a wife: my seven husbands are already dead; and why should I live but if it please not you that I should die, command some regard to be had of me, and pity taken of me, that I hear no more reproach.

JEROME. It is difficult for temptation not to rise up when there is touching of fingers or movement of feet. Whence Jeremiah (15:17), I never sat in company of partygoers, etc. Rather, I sat alone because you filled me with bitterness. [Hugo De Charo]?’ 16 So the prayers of them both were heard before the majesty of the great God. 17 And Raphael was sent to heal them both, that is, to scale away the whiteness of Tobit’s eyes, and to give Sara the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit; and to bind Asmodeus the evil spirit; because she belonged to Tobias by right of inheritance. The selfsame time came Tobit home, and entered into his house, and Sara the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper chamber.

PSEUDO CHRYSOSTOM. God healed Tobit through the angel Raphael, because God does many of his own works through angels. Angels do these kinds of things, God himself seems to do them, because He gives them the command and the power to do them. [Opus Imperfectum, Homilies on Matthew, PG 56 v.6 Hom.6]?8

GREGORY I. Those who announce less important things are called Angels, and those who announce the highest things are called Archangels. And so not any Angel but the Archangel Gabriel was sent to Mary; for this ministry, it was fitting to have the highest Angel, since he was to announce the greatest news of all. These Archangels are also given special names to describe their particular virtue. For Michael means “Who is like to God?” Gabriel means “Strength of God,” and Raphael “Medicine of God.” Whenever something is to be done needing great power, Michael is sent forth so that from his action and his name we may understand that no one can do what God can do. Hence that old enemy who through pride desired to be like God is shown at the end of the world, left to his own strength and about to undergo the final punishment, as destined to fight with Michael the Archangel, as John says, “There was a battle with Michael the Archangel.” Similarly, Gabriel was sent to Mary; he who is called “Strength of God” came to announce Him who deigned to appear in humility to conquer the powers of the air. And Raphael is interpreted, as we said, “Medicine of God,” for when he touched the eyes of Tobit to do the work of healing, he dispelled the “night of his blindness.” [Gregory I, Homiliae in Evangelia, Hom. 34, PL 76.9.1251B]

BEDE. Raphael (whose name is translated as ‘medicine of God’) to free Tobit from blindness and Sarah from the demon. In like fashion was the Lord sent into the world; he said of himself, A doctor is not needed for the healthy, but for the sick, (Matt. 9:12) and he redeemed the Jewish people from the darkness of unbelief and the Gentiles from the bondage of idolatry. Of him the prophet said, And his name shall be called Angel of the Great Council. (Is. 9:6) [Bede, Allegorica interpretatio in Tobiam PL 91.926D}“°

JEROME. But whenever it is medicine or healing that is needed, it is Raphael who is sent, for his name is rendered as “the healing of,” or “the medicine of God”. [Jerome, Commentaria in Danielem, PL 25.1.538B]”°

HIPPOLYTUS. When Susannah prayed to God, and was heard, the angel was sent then to help her, just as was the case in the instance of Tobias and Sara. For when they prayed, the supplication of both of them was heard in the same day and the same hour, and the angel Raphael was sent to heal them both. [Hippolytus of Rome, Exegetical Fragments, Scholia on Susanna verse 55, ANF v.5]