Anna sharply denies the accusations, and Tobit begins to pray to God for death as release from suffering: "that I may be dissolved, and become earth".

[4] Rembrandt skilfully tells the story, focusing on the most important threads: Anna, still with the goat at hand, has just heard her husband's accusation, which she indignantly denies.

[5] While the scene of Tobias and the Angel travelling through the desert was already an established subject in European art, Dutch Golden Age painters were also interested in the other episodes of the Book of Tobit.

[6] Willem van Swanenburg's print of the penitent Saint Peter after a painting by Abraham Bloemaert has also been cited as a source for the figure of Tobit.

In 1917, it was sold by the art dealer E. J. Goudstikker (Amsterdam), and it was in the collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza (Schloss Rohoncz, Lugano; Villa Favorita, Castagnola) from 1956 to 1979.