And my neighbors laughed: The neighbors laughed in scorn, not because anything was funny. Good News Translation eliminates the literal laughter, but builds in the sense of contempt with “thought I was crazy.” Contemporary English Version has “made fun of me.”

Is he still not afraid?: Tobit has reason, the neighbors think, to be afraid of the king, since he is defying him by this act of charity. Good News Translation changes the discourse to a vivid second person, but in Greek (as in New Revised Standard Version) the neighbors talk to each other. The question about Tobit’s lack of fear is not a request for information, but again, an expression of scorn, captured by Good News Translation “Haven’t you learned anything?” However, Contemporary English Version maintains this sense of scorn and still uses the idea of being afraid: “You would think Tobit would be afraid to do the same thing again.”

He has already been hunted down to be put to death for doing this: The Greek indicates that an effort had been made to hunt Tobit down so that he could be put to death for doing this. The verb is passive, but presumably the king’s men had searched for him. In languages that do not have the passive voice this information must be made clear; for example, “The king had already tried to find Tobit, arrest him, and put him to death for burying people like this.” Here the neighbors are reminding us of what Tobit himself said in 1.16-20.

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.