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1 Now when I was come home again, and my wife Anna was restored unto me, with my son Tobias, in the feast of Pentecost, which is the holy feast of the seven weeks, there was a good dinner prepared me, in the which I sat down to eat. 2 And when I saw abundance of meat, I said to my son, Go and bring what poor man soever thou shalt find out of our brethren, who is mindful of the Lord; and, lo, I tarry for thee. 3 But he came again, and said, Father, one of our nation is strangled, and is cast out in the marketplace. 4 Then before I had tasted of any meat, I started up, and took him up into a room until the going down of the sun. 5 Then I returned, and washed myself, and ate my meat in heaviness, 6 Remembering that prophecy of Amos, as he said, Your feasts shall be turned into mourning, and all your mirth into lamentation. 7 Therefore I wept: and after the going down of the sun I went and made a grave, and buried him. 8 But my neighbours mocked me, and said, This man is not yet afraid to be put to death for this matter: who fled away; and yet, lo, he burieth the dead again. 9 The same night also I returned from the burial, and slept by the wall of my courtyard, being polluted and my face was uncovered: 10 And I knew not that there were sparrows in the wall, and mine eyes being open, the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes, and a whiteness came in mine eyes: and I went to the physicians, but they helped me not: moreover Achiacharus did nourish me, until I went into Elymais. 11 And my wife Anna did take women's works to do. 12 And when she had sent them home to the owners, they paid her wages, and gave her also besides a kid. 13 And when it was in my house, and began to cry, I said unto her, From whence is this kid? is it not stolen? render it to the owners; for it is not lawful to eat any thing that is stolen. 14 But she replied upon me, It was given for a gift more than the wages. Howbeit I did not believe her, but bade her render it to the owners: and I was abashed at her. But she replied upon me, Where are thine alms and thy righteous deeds? behold, thou and all thy works are known.
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[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Tobit 2:1
Often we are asked, “If we celebrate Pentecost because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, why do the Jews celebrate it?” The Jews do, in fact, also celebrate Pentecost. You heard that earlier this morning when you followed with attention the reading of the book of Tobit as it was read at the memorial shrine of the blessed Theogenes. There it was said that on the day of Pentecost Tobit prepared a lunch and invited some of his friends who were worthy to participate in this feast since they feared the Lord. It says, “On the day of Pentecost, that is, the holiest day of the weeks.” In fact, seven times seven equals forty-nine; to this number, one is added for the sake of unity in order to be able to bring us back to the head, the beginning. Unity in fact provides cohesion to every multitude; and the multitude if it is not cemented in unity is an agglomerate of disputing and quarrelsome people. If, however, there is concord, they form a single soul. Scripture asserts just this when speaking about those who had received the Holy Spirit. It says that “they had a single soul and heart toward God.” Thus it makes fifty days, which is the mystery of Pentecost.But why, then, do the Jews celebrate Pentecost, if not because in their celebration there was something prefigured there? Pay close attention to me! You know that among the Jews a lamb is killed and the Passover is celebrated thus, like a figure of the passion of the Lord that would happen later. No Christian can ignore what I am saying. You also know that they were commanded to find a lamb among the goats and the sheep. But can a lamb be found among goats and sheep? That command, in itself, was impossible, but it pointed toward the possibility that the Christ would come in truth in our Lord Jesus, who according to the flesh was born from the seed of David4 and drew his origin from both the sinners and the righteous. In the genealogy of the Lord, according to the generations that the Evangelist recorded, we find many sinners, because he also came from sinners; and the church today is assembled from both the just and sinners.

Source: NEWLY DISCOVERED SERMONS 31:2
[AD 735] Bede on Tobit 2:1-14
Tired from burial, Tobias came into his house, . . . . . and became blind. Do not be surprised, reader, that sometimes good deeds symbolically signify evil, and sometimes evil deeds signify good things. If this were not allowed, God would never be written with black ink but always with bright gold, because He is light. But even if you write the name of the devil on a white stone, it still signifies deep darkness. Therefore, blind Tobias signifies what the Apostle says, "Blindness has happened in part to Israel" (Rom. XI). He was tired from burial and became blind, because he who persists tirelessly in good works is never deprived of the light of faith. Spiritually, he lies and sleeps tired, who neglects to watch and stand in faith, to act manfully, to be strengthened. To him well applies the apostolic word: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Eph. V). Swallows, because of their light flight, represent pride and lightness of heart, whose impurity quickly blinds those over whom they rule. For it is as if one sleeps under the nest of swallows, who incautiously subjects his mind to lightness, wantonness, and pride. This blindness, however, prevailed over the people of Israel, especially with the imminent coming of the Lord in the flesh, when they were oppressed by the yoke of Roman servitude and violated the commandments of the divine law by living wickedly.

Tobias' relatives mocked him, and his wife reproached him, as if he had served God in vain. Rebuking and instructing them, he turned to God in prayer. In that people, there were some who, with foolish rashness, insulted the miseries of the people, which now differed greatly from the former happiness of the holy fathers, who once served God sublimely among them. The same people diligently cared to correct them through their teachers and chosen ones and turned themselves to implore God's mercy for the attainment of eternal life. It should not be seen as inappropriate that the same Tobias, both blind and preaching the word of God, is said to signify both the reprobate and the elect. For even the patriarch Jacob, wrestling with the angel, was made both lame and blessed; signifying, in his lameness, the unfaithful of his people, and in his blessing, the faithful.

Source: Commentary on Tobit
[AD 465] Maximus of Turin on Tobit 2:4
We understand how devoted he was who, as he himself maintained, left his dead father so as to lay hold of the Lord of life. For he says, “First permit me to go and bury my father.” The one whom he had left behind as dead he begs that he might return and bury. Sorrow did not hold him nor death detain him, because he was hastening to life. He had not yet closed the eyes of the dead man, not yet buried the stiff limbs, but as soon as he learned that the Lord had come he forgot the feeling of paternal piety, believing that there was a greater piety in loving Christ more than one’s parents. Perhaps he had read the prophetic passage that says, “Forget your people and your father’s house.” So he forgot his father and remembered his Savior. Perhaps he had also heard the Lord’s Gospel words: “The one who loves his father or mother more is not worthy of me.” Thus, as Tobit is justified because he abandons his meal for the sake of a burial, this man is approved because he abandons the burial of his father for the sake of Christ. For the one is not afraid to pass over his meal because of some earthly work intervenes, while the other fears lest some delay cause him to omit the eating of heavenly bread. Thus, although in consideration of Christ we owe burial to everyone, this man forsook his father’s burial out of love for Christ.

Source: SERMONS 41:2
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Tobit 2:6
Once the people fell down in the desert and died. Aaron their chief priest came and “stood in the midst of those who died and of those who lived,” so that the devastation of death might not advance even further among the rest. And then came the true high priest, my Lord, and he came into the midst between those dying and the living. That is, he came between those Jews who accepted his presence and those who not only did not accept but also killed themselves more completely than him, saying, “The blood of that one be on us and on our children!” So also “all the righteous blood that has been poured forth on the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah whom they killed between the sanctuary and the altar, will be required from that generation” that said, “His blood on us and on our children.” Therefore, these are a part of the dead people because they do not properly perform either the feast of unleavened bread or the feast days. But “their feast days have been turned into sorrow and their songs into lamentations,” they who, even if they wished, could not celebrate the feast days in that place that the Lord God chose. And indeed we ourselves did not say to them, “You will have no part in this altar or in the inheritance of the Lord,” but they themselves of their own accord refute the true altar and the heavenly high priest and have been brought to such a point of unhappiness that they both lost the image and did not accept the truth. Therefore it is said to them, “Behold, your house is left to you deserted.” For the grace of the Holy Spirit has been transferred to the nations; the celebrations have been transferred to us because the high priest has passed over to us, not the imagined but the true high priest, chosen “according to the order of Melchizedek.” It is necessary that he offer for us true sacrifices, that is, spiritual, where “the temple of God is built from living stones,” which is “the church of the living God” and where true Israel exists.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 26:3
[AD 9999] Pseudo-Augustine on Tobit 2:12
The righteous are tested in order to bring about their improvement. This is why we must be strong in the face of temptations, knowing they do not occur in order to humiliate us but in order to make us grow if we face them with a serene mind for the sake of Christ.

Source: QUESTIONS FROM BOTH TESTAMENTS 99