Cursed are all: Contemporary English Version has “God will put a curse on those.” In most languages there is a technical word for “curse,” but this often has the idea of “black magic,” and the motivation is jealousy or revenge. That is not the case here where God’s condemnation is involved. So an alternative translation may be “God will punish all those who….”

Speak a harsh word against you means “insult you” or “say evil words against you.”

Pull down your walls … overthrow your towers: Towers refers to strong fortifications on the walls of Jerusalem from which the soldiers could defend themselves. So we may also express this line referring to towers as “destroy the strong places on your walls.” The two lines are very similar in meaning and may be restructured in the following way: “all who tear down your walls, even the strong places on the walls.”

Blessed forever will be all: God is the agent of the “blessing,” so we may say “But God will be good to all those who….”

Revere you: This is literally “fear you,” which Good News Translation renders “honor you.” The Old Latin has “who rebuild you,” which fits in beautifully with the context, but the Greek also makes good sense.

A possible model for languages that must talk about Jerusalem in the third person is the following:

• God will punish all those who say evil words against Jerusalem.
He will punish all who conquer Jerusalem and tear down its walls,
even the strong places on the walls.
He will also punish those people who set the city’s homes on fire.
But he will be kind to all those who honor Jerusalem.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Tobit. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.