Where are you from, brothers?: Edna addresses the two young men as brothers, but Good News Translation omits this reference. However, a number of languages will require some honorific form to be used here. Contemporary English Version has “our new friends.” “Young friends” is another possibility. Again, translators must carefully study the social context and pick a suitable form of address.

We belong to the descendants of Naphtali who are exiles in Nineveh: Good News Translation makes two explanatory additions to remind the reader that the descendants of Naphtali are Israelites, and that Nineveh is a city in Assyria. For tribe see 1.1, and for exile see 1.3.

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.