She was grieved in spirit and wept uses language very close to that of 3.1. This is another way the author forces us to see that the situations of Tobit and Sarah are parallel.
When she had gone up to her father’s upper room, she intended to hang herself: The text says that Sarah went to “an upstairs room of her father.” New American Bible takes this to mean “an upstairs room in her father’s house.” Good News Translation also assumes this, but takes it as self-evident that she lives with her father, and omits any mention of him. New Jerusalem Bible presents the picture of Sarah going up to her father’s own room, which, if intended, would make her second thoughts more understandable; after all, she is not trying to strike back at her father for anything. It is not clear why she goes upstairs. Perhaps it is to hang herself from a window. Or is it simply to get away from the household servants? Good News Translation “determined to hang herself” may be a bit too strong; intended to hang herself is all that is necessary. In translating hang herself some languages must show the instrument used in hanging; for example, “intended to take a rope and hang herself.” Or it is possible to give even more detail: “intended to put a rope around her neck and hang from it till she died.”
Never shall they reproach my father: Good News Translation expresses Sarah’s change of mind in words with “No, I won’t do it!” (similarly Contemporary English Version). Reproach means “to insult” (Good News Translation) or even “talk about … behind his back” (Contemporary English Version).
Because of her distress may be rendered “because she felt so sad” or “because she had so many troubles.”
New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have the insulting words of people as direct speech in single quotes. Translators must decide what is the most natural way in their languages to show quotations within quotations like this. One way to handle this problem is to put a colon () before the initial quote and then double quote marks before the words of the people; for example,
• she said to herself: No, I won’t do it! People would insult my father and say, “You had only one child….”
It is also possible to use indirect speech to express what the people said; for example,
• … insult my father by saying that he had only one child….
I shall bring my father in his old age down in sorrow to Hades: Good News Translation has “Such grief would bring my gray-haired father to his grave”; or we may say “I would cause my aged father to be so sorrowful that he would die.” For I shall bring my father …, compare Gen 37.35; 42.38; 44.29, 31. Hades is the realm of the dead, equivalent to the Hebrew Sheol. In some languages this is expressed as “the land of the dead” or “the land where dead people go.” However, in most languages something like “grave” is an adequate translation. There are no overtones of hell here.
It is better for me not to hang myself: In many languages it will be more natural style to say “I won’t kill myself” rather than repeating the word hang.
Listen to these reproaches: See the note on 3.7.
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.