Tobit 12:9 /almsgiving purging sin?

Tobit/ 12:9/ almsgiving purging sin?

Tobit 12: 8 Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up treasures of gold. 9 For alms delivers from death, and the same is that which purges away sins, and makes to find mercy and life everlasting. 10 But they that commit sin and iniquity, are enemies to their own soul.

An Anglican author deals what verse 9 means:

 Alister E. McGrath explained how the word translated as ‘almsgiving’ in Tobit carries the meaning of ‘to set things right’. In order to get a full understanding of McGrath’s explanation I suggest that you read chapter 1.2 of his book, but the following quote can be found on pages 7-8.

The later meaning of sedaqa in post-biblical Hebrew (‘almsgiving’) can thus be seen as the development of a trend already evident in passages such as Psalm 112:9 and Daniel 4:27 (Aramaic, 4:24: although this section of the book of Daniel is written in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew, the same word is used in each language). The ‘right (or intended) order of affairs’ is violated by the existence of the poor and needy; it is there- fore a requirement of sedaqa that this be remedied by the appropriate means. Thus the sense which sedaqa assumes in the Targums and Talmud (‘benevolence’ in general, or ‘almsgiving’ in particular) can be seen to represent a natural development of the soteriological nuances which had been associated with the term from the earliest of times, rather than the final rupture of the semantic connection between a word and its root.35The etymology of the term on its own is inadequate to explain this development; the soteriological context within which it is deployed, especially when linked with the motif of the covenant between God and Israel, enables this extended meaning to be understood without difficulty.

from comment 457 found here: 

http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2012/05/joshua-lims-story-a-westminary-seminary-california-student-becomes-catholic/#comment-34955 

and comment 459 by a Catholic:

Giving alms, along with penances and other works of mercy, is one way of counteracting the effects, and hence the temporal punishment, attached to venial sins – …………………..