He said, “It is possible that he will die”: What Raguel says is an incomplete sentence in Greek. New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and New American Bible have different ways of making this into a complete sentence, each equally good. There is comic irony in Raguel’s statement, since at this point only he and Edna are ignorant of what is happening. Raphael knows, Tobias and Sarah know, and the narrator has let the reader know. The reader can only laugh at Raguel’s efforts to keep from being laughed at one more time. Good News Translation translates “Raguel thought,” indicating that this statement was not actually spoken in the hearing of the servants, as Raguel didn’t want them to know his intentions. This interpretation is certainly possible.

We will become an object of ridicule and derision may be rendered “people will laugh and make fun of us” (Good News Translation) or “they will make fun of us and insult us” (Contemporary English 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.