Pour out your bread on the burial of the just, but give nothing to the wicked.
All Commentaries on Tobit 4:17 Go To Tobit 4
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
It is obvious that a banquet does not benefit the dead, and that it is a custom of the pagans, and that it does not flow from the channel of justice derived from our ancestors the patriarchs; we read about their funerals being celebrated; we do not read of funeral sacrifices being offered for them. This can also be observed in the customs of the Jews, for while they have not inherited from their ancestors the fruit of virtue, still they have retained the ancient customs in a number of their celebrations and ceremonies. And as for the objection some people bring forth from the Scriptures: “Break your bread and pour out your wine on the tombs of the just but do not hand it over to the unjust,” this is not the occasion, indeed, to expatiate on it; but still I will say that the faithful can understand what is being said. It is well known, after all, to the faithful how the faithful do these things out of a religious respect for their dear departed; and that such rites are not to be granted to the unjust, that is, to unbelievers, because “the just person lives by faith.”
