Until his death may be rendered “Until the emperor died,” or even “For the rest of the emperor’s life.”

I used to go into Media: On his travels Tobit would sometimes go to the country of Media (the northwestern area of modern Iran).

While in the country of Media: Contemporary English Version has “on one of those trips,” while Good News Translation has “Once, when I was in the city of Rages in Media.” The phrase “the city of Rages” does not occur in our Greek text until 4.1 (see the important note there), but it is a legitimate addition here in translation to bring out something that is made clear elsewhere in the text. If this addition is made, translators may wish to add a footnote as follows: “The city of Rages is not in the Greek text, but see 4.1.”

I left bags of silver worth ten talents in trust with Gabael, the brother of Gabri: On one such trip (a different tense is used for I used to go into Media, and buy and I left) he entrusted a large sum of money to a man named Gabael, identified only as the brother of Gabri. I left … in trust means that Tobit left some money with Gabael for safekeeping. Good News Translation expresses it by “I left some bags of money … and asked him to keep them for me”; or we may say “I left … for Gabael to take care of for me.” The important thing about the money is not its exact monetary value—ten talents would be many thousands of dollars—but simply its huge size. Good News Translation “600 pounds of silver coins” renders the same Greek text and attempts to express it in terms not requiring an equivalent in any modern national currency. In the metric system the equivalent is approximately 270 kilograms. It is a sum of money large enough to justify going to some trouble to get it back. Tobit’s attempt to recover this money is the first action in the plot of the story.

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.