There are two separate textual problems in this verse, which account for the substantial difference between New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

First, Prayer with fasting is “prayer with sincerity” in the Greek text we are following. The term fasting can be explained as having been introduced in the scribal tradition in the same way that “fasting” was added to some manuscripts of Mark 9.29, or maybe it came into the text because of the discussion of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting in the same context in the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 6.2-18. On the other hand, the textual evidence for this passage in Tobit is decidedly in favor of fasting. Only our Greek text has “sincerity.” So translators are urged to follow New Revised Standard Version. Another way to express the first clause is: “It is good to pray and fast.” Fasting means “going without food” for a determined period of time.

For almsgiving see 4.7.

A little with righteousness: The second problem is where New Revised Standard Version has a little instead of what is in our text, “to give alms.” The translation of New Revised Standard Version certainly yields a more balanced proverb, but the textual evidence is not as strong here as for the first problem. The text we are following makes sense, and translating it, along with Good News Translation and others, is justifiable. Good News Translation “to please God by helping the poor” is a way of rendering “to give alms along with justice.” The translator, however, should try to preserve the parallelism of the original: almsgiving … righteousness … wealth … wrongdoing.

An alternative translation model for this verse, preserving the parallelism, is the following:

• It is good to pray and fast, but helping the poor and being honest is even better. Being generous to the poor and being honest is better than being rich, but dishonest. It is better to give to the poor than to get lots of gold.

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.