He died highly respected: Good News Translation omits the phrase highly respected, but it should be retained, as New Revised Standard Version and Contemporary English Version have done. In some languages highly respected must be translated in the active voice; for example, “Everyone respected Tobias greatly.” But translators must avoid giving the impression that he was respected because he died, as in a rendering such as “When Tobias died at the age of one hundred seventeen years, everyone respected him.” To avoid this problem, translators may say, for example, “By the time Tobias died at the age of one hundred and seventeen, everyone in Ecbatana respected him highly.”

The New Revised Standard Version footnote notifies us that different numbers are given for one hundred seventeen in some manuscripts, but we suggest translators use “117” with no note.

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.