And now, O Lord functions like “I beg you” (Good News Translation) or “Lord, please….”

Remember me and look favorably upon me: For the two imperative verbs, remember and look favorably Good News Translation has “treat me with kindness,” and Contemporary English Version has “be kind and forgive me.” The first verb suggests getting the Lord’s attention: “Take notice of me; look here.” The second expects favorable results. So it is possible to translate “Lord, please pay attention to me and forgive [me].”

Do not punish me … disobeyed your commandments: The Greek sentence beginning Do not punish me continues into verse 4; both Good News Translation and New Revised Standard Version have made two sentences of this. A logical rearrangement of material in Good News Translation forces it to combine the verse numbers. In Greek, Tobit asks not to be punished for three categories of sins:
my sins,
(my sins committed) in my ignorance (New Revised Standard Version unwitting offenses), and
(the sins) of my ancestors.

A relative clause describes the ancestors (literally, “fathers”) as having sinned against you and having disobeyed your commandments. New Revised Standard Version gives its first sentence to the three categories of sins, and its second sentence to stating the fact that the ancestors had sinned and disobeyed (although They sinned against you really seems to be a second translation of the clause, those that my ancestors committed before you). Good News Translation makes its first sentence speak of Tobit’s own sin; its second sentence shifts to the ancestors, but rearranges material so that their sin is mentioned before the punishment for it. Contemporary English Version keeps the traditional verse order and has:

Please be kind and forgive me,
especially for those sins
I didn’t mean to commit.
And don’t make me suffer
for the sins of my ancestors.
They disobeyed your commands….

Either model is possible.

The Good News Translation footnote tells us that some manuscripts have “I disobeyed” rather than “[they] disobeyed.” This is true; it is the other text that has “they,” and New Revised Standard Version adopts this variant, but with no footnote. It should be noted that the Old Latin version has this verb in the first person plural, and so New English Bible translates, “Do not punish me for the sins and errors which I and my fathers have committed. We have sinned against thee and disobeyed thy commandments.” This is an attractive solution, and could probably be justified on translational grounds rather than textual. Neither New English Bible nor Revised English Bible (which is similar) has a footnote.

So you gave us over to plunder, exile, and death is a literal rendering, and preserves the feature of God’s active involvement in causing the named disasters. Good News Translation “You let our people be plundered…” could be misunderstood to mean that God simply did nothing to prevent the disasters. Perhaps “You caused our enemies to plunder us…” would be better in many languages. Plunder may also be expressed as “forcibly take all the possessions.” This line may also be translated by two lines as follows:

• You caused our enemies to plunder our people.
They also took them captive and killed them.

Since Tobit’s first person us refers to the Israelites, Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “our people.”

To become the talk, the byword, and an object of reproach: This appears to reverse the order of the first two Greek nouns. Good News Translation “You made an example of…” is a good rendering of the noun byword, which often has the meaning “parable.” Another possible translation is “object lesson,” meaning that the Israelites became examples of the cruel treatment mentioned in the previous line. So this line may logically refer backwards to that line and forward to the last line of the verse. This part of the verse may be rendered, for example, “So you have caused our people to be an object lesson [or, example] to all the nations where you scattered us. They….” Talk means “an object of contempt” (Good News Translation) or “[they were] insulted” (Contemporary English Version). Object of reproach is translated as “[object of] disgrace” in Good News Translation. In some languages, however, this may be expressed as “loss of face.”

An alternative translation model for verse 4 is:

• They [or, We] disobeyed your commands, and so you caused our enemies to plunder them [or, us].
You let them take our people [or, us] captive and kill them [or, us].
As a result our people [or, we] became an object lesson to all the nations where you scattered them [or, us].
These nations ridiculed us and disgraced us [or, made us lose face].

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.