On Tobit

Contents

Reading pages: 1–38 · 39–69 · 70–93

1. 1Ambrose introduces a brief sermon summarizing the virtues of Tobit after the reading of the book.
2. 2Tobit, though just and merciful, bore captivity patiently, judging it less than his sins deserved.
3. 3Tobit kept burying the dead despite a royal ban and was restored only after losing his property.
4. 4Tobit left his meal to bury an unburied body.
5. 5Burying the dead is a great duty of mercy, since the dead cannot repay it.
6. 6Blinded, Tobit bore it without complaint, refused anything dishonestly gained, and never reclaimed his deposited money until old age.
7. 7Lending to the needy is good, but lending at interest is evil and forbidden by the law, as Tobit taught his son.
8. 8Lend freely without expecting return; lost money gains righteousness and mercy.
9. 9The rich refuse to lend to the needy, even swearing falsely that they have nothing.
10. 10The moneylender, cold to a plea for help, becomes warm at the mention of interest and binds the borrower in lasting debt.
11. 11The rich exploit the poor through interest, giving harm where help is sought.
12. 12David laments usury in the city before speaking of Judas’s betrayal; the moneylender is like the devil.
13. 13Lenders who take pledges worth more than the loan are the real debtors.
14. 14Puns on the words for interest and capital show usury’s worthlessness and cruelty; God freed the fathers from usury.
15. 15Debt, like sin, puts the debtor in mortal danger.
16. 16Lent money is restless as the sea and shipwrecks the borrower like Charybdis and the Sirens.
17. 17Flatterers and sellers of luxuries descend on the borrower and urge him to spend, in the words of Wisdom 2.
18. 18The true “lots” are the two Testaments; clinging to Scripture would have saved the borrower.
19. 19After the borrowed feasting comes ruin: the lender hounds the debtor, whose goods and slaves are sold, yet the principal is still owed.
20. 20The debtor’s plight is worse than a soldier’s, for his ruin is his own fault.
21. 21The ruined debtor remembers Scripture’s counsel to live on his own resources.
22. 22The debtor’s regret comes too late; he should have cut expenses at the start.
23. 23Moneylenders prey on rich young heirs, tempting them to buy with borrowed money.
24. 24The lenders lure the young man into pledging his ancestral property, then press him for payment.
25. 25The debtor lives in fear of the lender, and God sees both, condemning the one’s greed and the other’s folly.
26. 26The debtor flees the lender in terror like a hunted beast or hooked fish, and is at last forced to sell even his family tomb.
27. 27Abandoned by friends, the debtor hides in shame and wishes for death.
28. 28For every borrower who repaid, many have been driven to suicide by debt.
29. 29Ambrose has seen children sold at auction for their father’s debt.
30. 30Fathers even sell their own children to pay their debts.
31. 31God’s rebuke “To which creditor have I sold you?” shows that being sold to a moneylender is the worst punishment.
32. 32Moneylending leads to apostasy; the debtor sells himself by his own fault.
33. 33The devil is the moneylender of sin, whose bond against humanity Christ cancelled by paying debts he did not owe.
34. 34The lender’s “hundredth” (monthly interest) is a bitter parody of the hundredth sheep that Christ saved.
35. 35The lender is the “exactor” of the Gospel, and even the name “creditor” is a deception.
36. 36Ambrose recalls lenders holding a corpse as a pledge and mocks them for it.
37. 37Ambrose had the corpse carried to the lender’s house until the lender himself carried it to burial.
38. 38Moneylenders profit from gamblers’ losses and rule over them like tyrants.
39. 39Even the warlike Huns are enslaved by gambling and moneylenders.
40. 40The lender who demands his money back at once is hateful, and his many legal names multiply the debt.
41. 41Lent money is like a viper that breeds its own brood of evils and kills by its “head,” the principal.
42. 42Interest breeds like offspring, compounding month by month, as the Greek word tokos suggests.
43. 43Interest breeds endlessly, unlike nature, which keeps the times Ecclesiastes describes.
44. 44Ecclesiastes’ insatiable eye and sea picture the moneylender.
45. 45Unlike living things, money lent at interest grows without limit and never ages.
46. 46The law of Moses repeatedly forbids lending at interest, calling it choking the poor, long before Cato said the same.
47. 47Return pledged garments before sunset, lest the sun of righteousness set for you as it did for Judas.
48. 48Deuteronomy forbids exacting interest from a brother, who shares our nature and grace.
49. 49Taking interest in goods instead of money is still interest and evades the law.
50. 50The rich take “interest” as free goods for their banquets, feasting on the tears of the poor.
51. 51The law’s permission to take interest from foreigners meant only enemies; every fellow believer and fellow citizen is a brother.
52. 52Leviticus, the Psalms, and Ezekiel all condemn interest, and Ezekiel ranks the usurer with the idolater.
53. 53Like Samson’s lion yielding honey, the harsh lender should bring forth mercy and forgive the poor debtor.
54. 54Christ commands lending without hope of return; lender and debtor alike are called sinners.
55. 55Lend to the Lord by giving to the poor; Christ is the surest guarantor.
56. 56Christ became poor to make us rich; giving to the poor earns blessing, heaven, and nourishment.
57. 57Lenders argue that the law forbids only certain pledges, not all.
58. 58Ezekiel, Job, and Christ show that every pledge should be returned.
59. 59The psalm says the just man lends all day long; but what does he lend, if riches make entering the kingdom hard?
60. 60Peter, who had no silver or gold, lent the lame man healing in Jesus’ name, the true lending of the just.
61. 61The just lend the silver of God’s word, as the apostles did when they preached to the nations.
62. 62The promise “you will lend to the nations” concerns lending God’s word, not money.
63. 63Israel’s saints lent God’s word to the nations, as when the queen of the south came to Solomon.
64. 64Gentile believers now lend the interpretation of Scripture back to Israel, as the parable of the pounds teaches.
65. 65The word of God is the good lender’s money, bearing a hundredfold and earning the kingdom.
66. 66The Gentile church received the word refused by the synagogue, fulfilling Deuteronomy’s curse and blessing.
67. 67The pledge the law speaks of is spiritually the Holy Spirit given to our hearts.
68. 68We must keep faithfully the spiritual deposit Christ entrusted to us.
69. 69The law on returning pledges at sunset is quoted again.
70. 70In Ezra’s time the lenders agreed to return pledges and forgo their loans, binding later lenders.
71. 71Spiritually, the pledge is the word sown in the heart, which must not be taken from the weak.
72. 72The garment to be returned at sunset must be understood spiritually, as a tunic.
73. 73The garment is the poverty of the preacher and the seamless tunic of Christ, the gospel divided among the evangelists as by lot.
74. 74The tunic is Christ himself, put on through the cross, burial, and new life.
75. 75The garment that covered Noah’s nakedness is the word; it must not be taken from the poor.
76. 76The pledge belongs to the Lord’s lot, as in Leviticus and with Aaron; the garment of the word must be kept or recovered.
77. 77The garment is the robe of wisdom and faith; without it the devil exposes us, as he did Adam.
78. 78Sirach’s counsel to keep one’s word brief is illustrated by Susanna, who spoke only to God.
79. 79“A word made brief” also means God’s summing up of Israel’s account so that a remnant is saved.
80. 80Think how you will repay before borrowing, for interest only grows.
81. 81Borrowing humiliates the borrower and turns friends into enemies.
82. 82Neither rich nor poor should borrow at interest.
83. 83The mill and upper millstone the law forbids to be pledged signify the study of Scripture and Christ the cornerstone.
84. 84Do not take the millstone or the widow’s pledge, literally or spiritually.
85. 85The moneylender to imitate is the one in Christ’s parable who forgave both debtors.
86. 86The woman who anointed Christ figures the Gentile church, forgiven much and loving much.
87. 87God forgave the church more because he knew it would respond in gratitude.
88. 88Ambrose answers those who objected that usury is old: so is sin, which Christ came to abolish.
89. 89Borrowing with a surety turns a friend into an enemy.
90. 90Stand surety only for what you can afford to pay yourself.
91. 91Tobit paid his hired man and found him to be an angel; Christ himself may be in the least.
92. 92Pay hired workers promptly, as we ourselves are Christ’s hired laborers.
93. 93Tobit’s counsels on self-restraint, wages, and almsgiving are the true lending that earns eternal interest.