1. Meanwhile, day by day, Tobit was keeping track of the time Tobiah would need to go and to return. When the number of days was reached and his son did not appear,
2. he said, “Could it be that he has been detained there? Or perhaps Gabael has died, and there is no one to give him the money?”
3. And he began to grieve.
4. His wife Anna said, “My son has perished and is no longer among the living!” And she began to weep aloud and to wail over her son:
5. “Alas, child, light of my eyes, that I have let you make this journey!”
6. But Tobit kept telling her: “Be still, do not worry, my sister; he is safe! Probably they have to take care of some unexpected business there. The man who is traveling with him is trustworthy and one of our kindred. So do not grieve over him, my sister. He will be here soon.”
7. But she retorted, “You be still, and do not try to deceive me! My son has perished!” She would rush out and keep watch every day at the road her son had taken. She ate nothing. After the sun had set, she would go back home to wail and cry the whole night through, getting no sleep at all. Now when the fourteen days of the wedding celebration, which Raguel had sworn to hold for his daughter, had come to an end, Tobiah went to him and said: “Send me off, now, since I know that my father and mother do not believe they will ever see me again. So I beg you, father, let me depart and go back to my own father. I have already told you how I left him.”
8. Raguel said to Tobiah: “Stay, son, stay with me. I am sending messengers to your father Tobit, and they will give him news of you.”
9. But Tobiah insisted, “No, I beg you to send me back to my father.”