And now, Lord, I turn my face to you: Another way to translate this first line is “Lord, I am praying, asking you to help me.” The word Lord is supplied in both New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation from the alternate text; it is absent from our text. New Revised Standard Version includes a textual footnote. Translators may or may not include “Lord,” but if it is included, it is probably legitimate to do so on translation grounds without a footnote, as Good News Translation has done.

Raise my eyes toward you: New Revised Standard Version preserves the picture of Sarah actually looking upward to heaven. (In English, it is possible to look to someone for help without actually looking at that person.)

In rendering the verse as a whole, Good News Translation has combined two closely parallel lines, and clarifies the purpose of the prayer: “for help.” Good News Translation “I look to you” might be understood as metaphorical only, meaning “I am asking you.”

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.