Be quiet…!: While Tobit’s words to Anna are comforting and loving, Anna’s outburst is angry, loud, and insistent, almost incoherent.

Perished means “dead” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).

She would rush out: Rush out may also be translated as “rush [or, hurry] out of the house.” The repeated use of would in this verse, in both New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, tells English speakers that these are actions that Anna did every day.

Would heed no one: Both New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation give the text of other manuscripts in the footnote, “she would taste/eat nothing” (New American Bible adopts this). The only problem with the text as it stands is that it seems to assume people other than Tobit and Anna are on the scene. This is not a big problem, and there seems to be little reason not to stay with our text. Some translations do so without a note. The meaning of our text is a bit unclear, however. New Revised Standard Version translates it in as broadly literal a fashion as possible; Good News Translation slants it in the direction of Anna paying no attention to people trying to comfort her, which is quite possible. Contemporary English Version is similar with “no one could change her mind.” New Jerusalem Bible takes the verb in its common meaning of “trust/believe” and renders “She trusted no eyes but her own.” This is also quite possible, and makes good sense after the scene in which the distraught mother spends her daylight hours watching the Ecbatana road. A possible way to express this would be “… watch for him until sunset, trusting no one’s word.”

She would go in and mourn and weep: Go in means that Anna would return inside the house. The verbs for mourn and weep are those used in verse 4; see the note there.

New Revised Standard Version includes verses 7b-13 in one paragraph, but Good News Translation opens new paragraphs as verses 8, 9, 10, 12b, and 13. Translators must decide which form of paragraphing is more appropriate in their language here.

The fourteen days of the wedding celebration had ended that Raguel had sworn to observe for his daughter may be rendered “… that Raguel had made a solemn promise to hold for his daughter” (see 8.20). In some languages it will be better to reorder the clauses in this first sentence as follows: “Raguel had made a solemn promise to hold a wedding celebration for his daughter Sarah for fourteen days. And at the end of that time, Tobias came to him and said….”

I beg of you, father: This is literal but confusing, since Tobias refers to both Raguel and Tobit as father in the same sentence. Good News Translation relieves the difficulty by having Tobias call his father-in-law by name: “Please, Raguel.” However, in many languages for Tobias to address his father-in-law by name would be extremely impolite. Some languages use the equivalent of “Sir”; others have special pronouns or honorifics that are suitable in this context. In this scene Tobias is not pleading with Raguel. Neither “Please” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) nor I beg of you should be open to that interpretation. Raguel is not holding Tobias against his will—this is a polite way of breaking the bond. Each man knows that Tobias is going to go back home, but etiquette requires this respectful bargaining.

My own father: This is literally “my father.” New Revised Standard Version inserts own to distinguish Tobit from Raguel, whom Tobias has just addressed as father. Good News Translation has no problem here, since it had Tobias address Raguel by name.

I have already explained to you how I left him may be rendered “I have already told you that my father was in bad health when I left him.”

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.