New Revised Standard Version has a textual footnote with his mother, indicating that some manuscripts have “his mother Anna.” This is true enough, but the text we are following does not have it. However, if the translator feels the need for the name, it can be inserted on translation grounds without the need for a footnote.

Why is it that you have sent my child away?: This is rather strange English; “why are you sending my son away like this?” (Contemporary English Version) will be a more helpful model.

The staff of our hand refers to support for someone. Just as a person leans on a staff for support, the old couple rely on Tobias for support. So Good News Translation says “He’s our only means of support.”

As he goes in and out before us means that Tobias is always around when he is needed. In and out is itself idiomatic for “all a person’s actions” (compare 1 Sam 18.16; Psa 121.8). It is difficult to see how Good News Translation gets “Who will take care of us now?” although this is the sense of Anna’s outburst. Contemporary English Version is better with “and he is always here to help us.”

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.