When I was in my own country: New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and Contemporary English Version omit the word “and” in the Greek text at the beginning of this verse. It is a Greek conjunction that is often best represented at the beginning of sentences by nothing at all. Any connective used here must be one appropriate to the flashback that follows, such as “Long before this” or “Many years before this.” Good News Translation opens a new paragraph here as Tobit begins to tell about his youth. This seems better than starting a new paragraph at verse 5, as New Revised Standard Version does. The actual place of Tobit’s own country is given by Good News Translation: “northern Israel.” With these remarks in mind, the first part of this verse may be expressed as “Many years before this, when I was a young man, I lived in northern Israel.”
The whole tribe of my ancestor Naphtali deserted the house of David and Jerusalem: Naphtali is Tobit’s very distant ancestor, the son of Jacob who gave his name to this tribe, the social unit to which Tobit belonged. The house of David refers to the dynasty (line of kings) descended from David, which ruled the southern kingdom of Judah. New Revised Standard Version would have been better with “Jerusalem and the house of David” (compare Good News Translation “the city of Jerusalem and the kings descended from David”). The verb deserted used with the phrase must indicate a willful breaking away, a defiant secession from that government; for example, “rejected” in Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version. Although the character Tobit will demonstrate intense loyalty to his own tribe, it is clear that the writer’s sympathies are with the line of David. The reference here is to the rebellion of the northern tribes against Solomon’s son Rehoboam (1 Kgs 12) in 922 B.C. Tobit claims that he was a young man when this happened, but Shalmaneser’s capture of Israel (verse 2) dates from 200 years later, in 722 B.C. This reflects the writer’s lack of historical accuracy rather than a claim that Tobit lived to an extremely old age.
This city had been chosen from among all the tribes of Israel: The agent of the choosing is God (which Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version make clear), who selected this city from among all the tribes, that is, from anywhere in all the tribal territories; Good News Translation expresses this as “from among all the Israelite cities” (compare 1 Kgs 8.48).
Where all the tribes of Israel should offer sacrifice: Neither New Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation deals with this point, but it should perhaps be made clear that the “sacrifices” were to be made by the “people” of the tribes, since it was individuals who offered the sacrifices, not tribal representatives. So an alternative rendering for the middle of this verse may be: “God has chosen this city from among all the cities in the land of Israel as the place where the people from every Israelite tribe should go to offer sacrifices.” In some languages, however, it must also be made clear that the sacrifices are offered to God for example, “… should go to offer sacrifices to God.” Sacrifice in a number of languages is expressed as “slaughter animals and offer them.”
Where the temple, the dwelling of God, had been consecrated and established: The temple is identified as the dwelling of God, the place where God lives. This temple was consecrated, that is, it was made holy (or, sacred) at the dedication ceremony described in 1 Kgs 8. Solomon conducted that ceremony, but it was God’s action that made the place holy, meaning that it belongs to him and he lives there. In languages where “holy” or “sacred” means only “tabooed,” it will be necessary to translate in a way similar to New Revised Standard Version: “and where the temple, where God lived, had been set apart to him and….” Established translates a Greek word carrying the imagery of building; so Good News Translation has “was to be built” and Contemporary English Version “had been built.” The temple was consecrated after it was built, of course, and in some languages it will be more natural to reverse the order of consecrated and established (see the model below). However, the consecration is what established it as the place of worship for all generations forever (Good News Translation “his Temple was to be built for his holy and eternal home”). Good News Translation has changed the order of the clauses in this verse in a helpful way. Translators should study this model carefully. However, for those translators whose languages do not have the passive voice, the following model may be used:
• Many years before this, when I was young, I lived in northern Israel. The people from all the tribes in Israel were supposed to go to the city of Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to God there. God had chosen just this one city from all the Israelite cities as the place where they should build a temple that would be his own, where he would live forever. But all the people from my tribe [or, family group] of Naphtali rejected the city of Jerusalem and the kings descended from David.
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.