The connector Because (Good News Translation “Since”) introduces the reason for Tobit’s receiving favor with Shalmaneser in verse 13. It is possible to indicate this connection by deleting Because and beginning the next verse with “so”; for example, “I carefully obeyed the commands of the Most High God, 13 so….”

I was mindful of God with all my heart means “with every thought I was determined to follow God’s law”; Good News Translation expresses this as “I took seriously the commands….” Contemporary English Version has a helpful model: “Obeying God was the most important thing in my life.” God repays this devotion by the good fortune described in the next verse, where the reference to God as “the Most High” is combined by Good News Translation into a single reference here to “the Most High God.”

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.