If you have many possessions refers to a rich person. Many languages describe the rich in exactly the same way.

Make your gift from them in proportion: Good News Translation “Give according to what you have” translates a short phrase rendered in proportion by New Revised Standard Version, but the sense of the phrase is clearly and well expressed by Good News Translation in the last two sentences of the verse. The added first sentence, while it does no harm, is unnecessary (compare Sir 35.10-12).

The clause do not be afraid to give [alms] appears at the end of verse 8 in Greek, and can be taken either with what comes before it (New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation) or, by repunctuating the Greek, with what follows in verse 9 (New American Bible). In this second case the construction would run as follows: “ Give alms in proportion to what you have. If you have a lot, give a lot. If you have a little, give a little. Don’t hesitate to give alms, because you will be storing up for yourself….” Either way of understanding the text is acceptable, but the Handbook recommends the approach in Good News Translation and New Revised Standard Version.

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.