When he entered: Raphael is the subject of the sentence in Greek (and New Revised Standard Version); Good News Translation includes Tobias as well with “they.” The two had not only “reached” Media, they had actually entered it. In fact, they had gotten as far as the approaches to Ecbatana; this seems to be the meaning of the rather awkward expression already was approaching. It will be helpful to identify Media as a country and Ecbatana as a city again at this point.

The footnote in New Revised Standard Version simply reports what is in the other Greek text. Translators may ignore it.

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.