Translation commentary on Tobit 2:1

During the reign of Esarhaddon may also be expressed as “while Esarhaddon was king” (Contemporary English Version) or “while King Esarhaddon was ruling over Assyria.” Good News Translation has omitted this phrase, perhaps because the previous paragraph has just told us that Esarhaddon was king.

My wife Anna and my son Tobias were restored to me: The phrase were restored is literal, but it suggests that Anna and Tobias had been taken from Tobit, which is not what the narrator seems to have in mind (compare 1.20). Good News Translation “I was reunited with” avoids this difficulty; but in languages that do not have the passive voice, translators may have to say something like “I lived with my wife Anna and son Tobias again.” The Greek passive probably does not have the sense that God is the one reuniting the family. Tobit is simply telling what happened, not the cause of it.

At our festival of Pentecost, which is the sacred festival of weeks: Since Pentecost is a Greek term and used in the Greek text here, some versions such as New Revised Standard Version use the term as the name of the festival. Good News Translation consistently renders the name of this holiday as “Harvest Festival,” referring to the grain harvest (so also Contemporary English Version). It is the Jewish holiday Shavuoth. Festival of weeks is an alternate name; by using both names, the writer seems to be explaining one by the other. “Harvest Festival” may also be rendered as “the Festival to celebrate the grain harvest.” Festival of weeks is more difficult to translate. This festival celebrated the first harvesting of grain which started seven weeks earlier. So it is possible to express this as “the Festival of Seven Weeks” or “the Festival seven weeks after the first harvest.” For festival see 1.6. The possessive our festival, probably means “our [Jewish] festival,” though it could be taken to refer to Tobit’s family: “when our family observed the Harvest Festival….”

A good dinner was prepared for me says a bit more than the Greek. Obviously someone prepared the meal, but the text really says no more than “there was a good dinner” (New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation has simply “a delicious meal.”

I reclined to eat accurately reflects the Greek original and the presumed actual custom, where people reclined while eating meals. “Settled down to eat” would not be misleading and may avoid raising questions that are not essential to the meaning of the text.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• I returned home to Nineveh while King Esarhaddon was ruling Assyria, and once again lived with my wife Anna and my son Tobias. At the Festival for celebrating the grain harvest, which is also called the Festival of Seven Weeks, I settled down to eat a delicious meal.

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.

Translation commentary on Tobit 4:3 - 4:4

Good News Translation begins a new paragraph here because the focus changes to Tobit speaking to his son. Translators are urged to follow Good News Translation in this.

He called his son Tobias, and when he came to him he said: This is Tobias coming to Tobit. Good News Translation omits the idea of coming, since it is obvious when Tobit begins speaking that Tobias has answered his father’s call and is present. However, in certain languages this can be expressed as “So Tobit called for Tobias to come to him, and said….”

My son is literally “child.” In some languages this will be the natural term in this context. In other languages, however, it will be better style to use Tobias’s name or simply “Son” (Good News Translation).

When I die does not occur in the Greek text, but is a helpful and perfectly natural clause to build in, and we need not seek a textual basis in the Latin, as does New Revised Standard Version. (The other Greek text has “If I die,” but Tobit is actually expecting to die soon; after all, he has prayed for death.)

Give me a proper burial reflects our Greek text here; we may also express this as “bury me well.”

Do not abandon her all the days of her life: Good News Translation “Take care of her for the rest of her life” is a positive command, rather than the more literal and negatively stated imperative in New Revised Standard Version, which could be misunderstood to mean that it would be acceptable to abandon her occasionally.

Do whatever pleases her: Good News Translation “try to make her happy” could suggest that making her happy might not be easy to do. This is not suggested by the Greek, which simply says “do what is pleasing to her.” Contemporary English Version “do whatever she asks” is another possible rendering.

Do not grieve her in anything may be rendered “Never do anything that will cause her to be sorrowful.”

Remember … she faced many dangers for you while you were in her womb: Remember may also be expressed as “Don’t forget.” Tobias is probably not being advised to remember that “she risked her life…” (Good News Translation), although that is possible. More likely he is to remember her, that is, to “be mindful of her,” “never forget her,” because she (literally) “saw many dangers for your sake.” She endured them; New Revised Standard Version faced expresses the idea well. While you were in her womb is a natural expression in a number of languages, but in English as in many other languages something like “She faced many dangers before she gave birth to you [or, brought you into the world]” is more natural style. It would also be possible to restructure with New Jerusalem Bible, “Remember, my child, all the risks she ran for your sake when you were in her womb.”

Bury her beside me in the same grave: The shorter “bury her beside me” in Good News Translation avoids a potentially awkward problem. The literal in the same grave seems to presuppose a setting back in the Jewish homeland, where people were buried in natural caves or in tombs hewn out of the rock, which could be reused. Yet in Tob 8.9, 18 a grave for Tobias (in Media) is actually dug from the earth in a short space of time and filled in again. Perhaps the author, living in Judea, is aware of burial customs in the East, but at this point uses the idiom, in the same grave, which is more appropriate to his own local place and practice. Translators are urged to follow the rendering of Good News Translation.

Good News Translation restructures verses 3-4, giving the instruction about burying the mother before the command to remember her. But it can be argued that the burial advice is just as logical here at the end, where the author placed 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.

Translation commentary on Tobit 5:16

I will add something to your wages: The narrative is clear at this point, but a bit jerky. Tobit seems to be getting more generous with each sentence. He has already promised fair wages plus expenses, but he goes on to “add a bonus” (Good News Translation), but for no apparent reason. The other text adds, as the New Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, “when you return safely.” This helps a bit, but it may be a scribe’s effort to solve the same problem: Why the bonus? The Good News Translation solution is “Be a good companion.” It makes sense, but still, the text says only “… So go with my son, 16 and I will add something to your wages.”

Good health … good health: Raphael is using here the same word Tobit used in welcoming him, “May you come/go in good health.” Compare the note on the beginning of verse 14.

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.

Translation commentary on Tobit 7:10

The lad: This would be a good translation if lad were not a quaint word in English in this context. “Young man” (New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Revised English Bible) is far better. Good News Translation simply uses Tobias’s name. There is no compelling reason for this, but it is perfectly all right if the translator wishes to follow it. The reader knows Tobias is a young man.

Eat and drink, and be merry tonight. For no one except you, brother …: Good News Translation, by inserting “first,” seems to disconnect the meal from the wedding, and even gives the impression that Tobias should enjoy himself while he can, because soon he’s going to be married. The sense of the Greek is that the meal is part of the festivity: “Eat! Drink! Enjoy! Because no one else….” When earlier in the story Raguel meets Tobias and apparently becomes aware of him for the first time, the first thought that comes to his mind is surely that here is another potential husband for Sarah. Note that Raguel addresses Tobias as brother. In many languages this will not be proper usage. Good News Translation omits it. The address my child (Good News Translation “my son”), which occurs at the end of this verse, fits the context better in English.

But let me explain to you the true situation more fully: Good News Translation “But I must tell you the truth” is a possible alternative. An even better model is “But I must tell you the truth about Sarah.”

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.

Translation commentary on Tobit 10:4

Has perished: As Good News Translation indicates, this means “is dead.”

Is no longer among the living: “I am sure of it” (Good News Translation) is a way of expressing in natural idiom the emphatic figure in Greek, which is only repetitious in English.

She began to weep and mourn: Anna begins, not to worry, but to weep and wail. She does more than just mourn; the expression used describes mourning in the Near Eastern fashion of loud wailing and lamentation. She is convinced that Tobias is dead.

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.

Translation commentary on Tobit 12:7

It is good to conceal: In some languages translators must use the equivalent of a command here; for example, “You should never reveal….”

The secret of a king: The idea is that if you are in possession of a state secret (classified information), it’s smart to keep quiet. This has to do with the secret (“mystery” is the Greek word) of an earthly king. It is appropriate, however, to acknowledge, that is, make widely known the works of God (“mystery” in another sense).

With fitting honor may be rendered “so that he may be praised and honored” (Good News Translation) or “so that people may praise and honor him.”

Do good and evil will not overtake you; that is, “If you do good, nothing bad will happen to 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.

Translation commentary on Tobit 13:17

The gates of Jerusalem will sing hymns of joy: In order to avoid the picture of city gates singing, Good News Translation expresses the first line in such a way as to have singing at the gates, with people understood as the ones doing the singing, “Joyful songs will ring out from your gates.” We may also say “The joyful songs of Jerusalem’s people will ring out from its gates.”

And all her houses will cry may be rendered “and from all your houses people will shout” (Good News Translation) or “and people will shout from all its [Jerusalem’s] houses.”

Hallelujah in Hebrew means “Praise the Lord” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).

Blessed be the God of Israel may be translated “Praise the God who the people of Israel serve.”

The blessed will bless: This reflects an effective but complex play on words in Greek. Not only does the verb (bless) echo the subject (the blessed), but both words echo the use of the word in the previous line, where it refers to God. It is the same word used in verse 12 of those who revere God. Good News Translation translates “Jerusalem, God will bless your people, and they will praise….” The problem with this is that it turns a description of the current state of God’s people (blessed) into a promise for the future; this is not what the verse is saying. Contemporary English Version is closer with “God’s people will praise…,” but this gives up any attempt to preserve the connections the author has made with his repeated use of the same word. This could be improved by a bit of expansion: “the people God has blessed will praise….” This loses the internal echo blessed … bless in this verse, but it is consistent with the rest of the chapter, and identifies who the blessed are and why they are blessed.

Holy name: Here the name is clearly God’s (compare verse 11).

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.

Translation commentary on Tobit 1:2

In the days of may be also expressed as “when” (Contemporary English Version) or “During the time that….” (Good News Translation).

King Shalmaneser: This King (Good News Translation “emperor”) reigned from 727 to 722 B.C. His name actually appears in the Greek text as Enemessaros, but Shalmaneser is the accepted form. In a number of languages King may be expressed as “high [or, great] chief,” or just “the great one.” However, Good News Translation uses the term “emperor,” indicating that Shalmaneser ruled over an empire that included a number of smaller or vassal states, each governed by a minor king. The equivalent of “emperor” in some languages is something like “supreme king [or, chief].” It is also possible to avoid the use of King or “emperor” and translate the first clause as “During the time that Shalmaneser ruled over the people of Assyria….”

Was taken into captivity from Thisbe …: Was taken into captivity means that the Assyrian army captured Tobit and took him as a prisoner back to their homeland. In languages that do not have the passive voice, all this information must be made clear; for example, “During the time that Shalmaneser ruled over the people of Assyria, the Assyrian soldiers captured me in my hometown of Thisbe, and took me to Assyria. Thisbe is located….” In cultures where only villages of various sizes exist, we may translate “town” or “city” as “a large village with a high fence around it.” The other place names locate Tobit’s hometown Thisbe to the northwest of Lake Galilee, although the town is otherwise unknown. It is not the same place as the prophet Elijah’s hometown Tishbe, which was east of the Jordan River in Gilead. Good News Translation attempts to clarify above Asher toward the west by identifying the same location with reference to the more familiar city of “Hazor.” In some languages it will be better to break the long Greek sentence after Thisbe, and begin a new sentence: “… from Thisbe. Thisbe is south of the town of Kedesh in the region of Naphtali…” (Contemporary English Version does something like this). In languages where all directional information depends upon where the speaker or writer of the book is located, translators should place the writer of Tobit in the general area of Judah.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• During the time that Shalmaneser ruled over Assyria, the Assyrian soldiers captured me in my hometown of Thisbe and took me back to their country. Thisbe is located in northern Galilee, south of the town of Kedesh in the region of Naphtali, northwest of the town of Hazor, and north of the town of Phogor.

Since it is certain that the Assyrian soldiers captured many Israelites and took them into exile with Tobit, it may be helpful for the development of the storyline to make that clear here. One model that does this is as follows:

• My hometown is Thisbe in northern Galilee. It is located south of the town of Kedesh in the region of Naphtali, and is northwest of the town of Hazor and north of the town of Phogor. When Shalmaneser was king of Assyria, the Assyrian soldiers captured me and many other Israelites, and took us away to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria.

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.