The interpretation timeline

Tob 4:15

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Tob 4:15 · Douay-Rheims
“If any man hath done any work for thee, immediately pay him his hire, and let not the wages of thy hired servant stay with thee at all.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“"You loved malice above kindness." Do you want proof that an evil person can see both, malice and kindness, yet chooses malice and turns away from kindness? Here it is. Why do such people complain when suffering unjustly? Why do they, in that situation, exaggerate the injustice as much as possible while commending kindness and denounce the offender who in treating them so badly has put malice above kindness? Let such people be their own criterion; let them judge their own behavior by their experience. If they will only obey Scripture's injunction, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," and "Whatever good you want people to do for you, do the same yourselves for them," they will have within themselves evidence that they must not treat others as they would not wish to be treated themselves.”
Source
1,419 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.