Tobit lives for another 50 years, and then summons Tobias for some deathbed advice. Get out of Nineveh, he tells him, for it is about to fall. He refers to Nahum, and talks in much more realistic tones about the return to Jerusalem, saying that the rebuilt Temple will not be as splendid as the first, not until the proper time has come.
The Assyrian empire is about to fall. Tobias escapes, and returns to his parents in law in Ecbatana, caring for them until they die. The story wraps itself up nicely with praise for the righteous life of Tobit.
Although set in the time of the Assyrian empire, the beliefs it contains about angels and demons with names would seem to date it to much later, to the Babylonian exile at least. This last chapter with its more realistic depiction of return from exile was perhaps written after those events had really occurred, to say to the Jew, okay the Temple doesn’t look much yet, but there is a glory to come. No sniff, though, of any belief in a Messiah - I shall have to wait for that to come. Tomorrow it’s Judith. Bring it on!
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