Some poor person of our people preserves the repetition of phrases so effective in ancient writing. Good News Translation “such a person” avoids a repetition that would be superfluous in English style. Translators should use the style that is most natural in their own language. In certain languages, some repetition will be helpful; for example, “such a poor person.”

He said, “Father!” And I replied, “Here I am, my child.”: The opening exchange of conversation between father and son is structured and stated to convey mood and excitement, rather than information. New Revised Standard Version sounds as if Tobias were searching for Tobit, who calls out to reveal where he is. In Good News Translation exclamation points and the repeated “Father! Father!” better capture the mood. Tobit’s “Yes, what is it?” is a fitting response, seeming to anticipate bad news, and more natural in English than Here I am. Contemporary English Version is similar with “What’s the matter?”

Look, father: The use of the word Look is Tobias’s way to get his father’s attention. Another model for this clause is “Please listen to me father!” In some languages father will be omitted at this point since Tobias just used this address.

Now Tobias conveys information about a dead man. He says three things of the dead man (the Greek clearly indicates that a man, not a woman, was killed): he was killed, he was thrown into the market place, he was strangled. Good News Translation rearranges these into a logical order, identifying the strangling with the murder, and then having the body thrown into the marketplace. The Greek however, does not necessarily mean that the man was killed elsewhere and brought to the marketplace; it only indicates that in the marketplace “someone” caused the man to fall dead. The tenses used indicate that the killing was recent. Circumstances suggest a judicial, or at least a political execution rather than a murder (compare 1.18), but Tobias thinks of it as a murder. For market place many cultures will have similar open areas where people buy and sell things. However, the point here is that the man was abandoned in a public open area. In some languages “street” is a closer equivalent (see Contemporary English Version). Contemporary English Version has a helpful model that some translators may wish to use:

• “An Israelite has been murdered!” Tobias answered. “He was strangled, then his body was thrown down and left lying in the street.”

However, in languages that do not have the passive voice, we may express this in a way similar to the following:

• Tobias answered, “They murdered an Israelite. They strangled him and then threw his body down and left it lying in the street.”

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.