Do not heap money upon money, but let it be a ransom for our child: New Revised Standard Version is literal, except that the meaning ransom for the Greek noun used is doubtful. The best English equivalent to this word is “crud,” meaning an encrustation scraped off an object. Compare its use in 1 Cor 4.13, where Good News Translation renders it “scum.” What Anna means is this: “We don’t have to have that money; it’s nothing but garbage/filth/crud compared with our son!”

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.