Raguel: Since the prayer is in the first person singular, it seems better to follow the manuscripts that have “Raguel” rather than “they.” Both Good News Translation and New Revised Standard Version do this, with textual footnotes.

Blessed: See the note on 3.11.

The God of heaven: See 7.12. See also the similar expressions “king of heaven” in 1.18 and “Lord of heaven” in 6.18. This phrase may be rendered “God who rules in heaven.”

Pure blessing is an unusual phrase. While it could perhaps refer to a pure offering, one made in an undefiled manner (Mal 1.11), it more likely refers to honesty: a “sincere” blessing (compare Pro 22.11). New English Bible provides a model with appealing simplicity for the first line of the prayer: “We praise thee, O God, we praise thee with all our heart.” Revised English Bible is differently worded, but means substantially the same: “All praise to you, O God, all perfect praise.” This is to understand pure in the sense of “unqualified.”

There is a suspected textual problem in this verse, as the second footnote in New Revised Standard Version indicates. To understand it, consider the literary structure of the Greek text:

(A) Blessed are you (see the note on 3.11)
(B) O God, in every pure blessing.
(C) Let them praise you forever.

Who is “them” in line C? This is what suggests the problem.

New Revised Standard Version solves the problem textually with the addition of a line from the Old Latin: let all your chosen ones bless you. New American Bible also accepts this, as well as accepting a further addition from the Old Latin, “holy and pure blessing.” Good News Translation does not resort to this textual solution; it rearranges the order to A-C-B, supplying “your people” as subject of the verb “praise.” Neither New English Bible nor Revised English Bible assume any change in the text, but they take the subject of “praise” to be people in general; the meaning is then “Let people praise you forever.”

Another textual solution is based on the alternative Greek text, which has “Blessed are you, O God, in every pure and holy blessing, and let them praise you. Your holy ones and all your creatures, and all your angels and your chosen ones, let them praise you forever.” The word order here is such that a scribe could easily have glanced from the first “praise you” to the second, thus omitting everything in between. This error would produce the text we are reading. Zimmerman, who usually follows our text studiously, accepts this solution and follows it in his translation. If translators wish to accept this, they should notice that “your holy ones” is parallel to “all your angels” and has the same meaning. Also, “all your creatures” is parallel to “your chosen ones.” Some translators will find it more natural style to combine the last two lines as follows: “Let all your angels and all those you have chosen praise you forever.”

Translators have a choice of approaches. If we accept Zimmerman’s textual solution, we may say, for example,

• You are worthy of pure and holy praise, O God who rules in heaven.
May people praise you forever;
may all your angels and all those you have chosen praise you.

Without assuming any change in the text, we may follow the model of Good News Translation and New English Bible:

• You are worthy of praise, O God who rules in heaven.
May people praise you forever;
may they praise you with all their heart.

This second model is much simpler and most translators will probably prefer 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.