Tobit 13:8-11, 13-15. Canticle of Tobit II.

This second part of the Canticle of Tobit is a thanksgiving prayer of a liberated people; it appeals to Jerusalem to give thanks to God because of his love for her and her people.

The singer looks forward to the rebuilding of the temple: "Praise the Lord ... so that his tent may be rebuilt,"(vs. 10). Jerusalem, too, will be rebuilt and be a light to "all parts of the earth," whose inhabitants will be drawn [to Jerusalem] "by the name of the Lord God!' (Cf. vs. 1 1).

After the temple had been built by Solomon, a theology of the Holy city of Zion, or Jerusalem, soon developed, a theology which is found in the psalms known as the 'Songs of Zion, 'namely, Psalms 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122. These treat of God 's saving presence in Zion.

In the year 587 BC both the city and the temple were destroyed by the Babylonians. This served to increase love for the Holy City among the exiles, and during these difficult years the vision of a new Jerusalem grew clearer in the teaching of the prophets. Return from exile was permitted as promised by Jeremiah. The temple was rebuilt. Verse 13 bids the people to rejoice at being gathered together again, and restored to prosperity (vs. 14).

For reflection: "The realization fell far short of the vision of the prophetic promises. The new temple had little of the glory of the first one, and less still of that of prophetic prediction. The result was that Israel had still to look forward to the fulfillment of the promises concerning Zion and the temple. After the exile prophetic voices kept the vision of the new age alive... But the realization continued to be delayed. The Song of Tobit... helped to keep the vision alive.

'It is good to follow Israel's vision of the future down through the centuries of her history. God's people had perforce to live with firm hope in circumstances which seemed to give the lie to the divine promises. But such is faith. It gives substance to things unseen. The prophecies regarding the New Jerusalem are in part fulfilled in Christ and his body which is the Church. But we all know only too well that the actual reality of Christian existence is far removed from God's idea of the Church, intended to be without crease or wrinkle or any such thing. And so, like our predecessors in the faith we live with the tension that is part and parcel of our belief and look forward (in the words of the Apocalypse, ch. 21, so aptly chosen as the heading to the present canticle: "He showed me the holy city Jerusalem which shown with the glory of God.") to the advent of that New Jerusalem all radiant with the glory of God." (McNamara)