dancing, shaking, trembling

The interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) uses the ideophone njenjenje (“shake-shake”) to emphasize movements like trembling, dancing, or shaking in these verses. (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 105)

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

Translation commentary on Tobit 12:16

The two of them: In 12.6 Good News Translation has “the two men.” Here it translates “Tobit and Tobias” to remind readers which two people are being spoken about.

The order of the three verbs in Greek, were shaken … fell … were afraid, is reversed in Good News Translation: “were terrified … fell … trembling with fear.” Were shaken means that they were extremely agitated and disturbed, in this case to the point of a physical reaction. Fell face down describes their falling in an attitude of reverence and submission. They did this willingly; translators should not give the impression that the action is a result of being stunned by the revelation, or made unconscious.

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.