At all times bless the Lord God: Bless, which is literally “speak well of,” can easily be interpreted as “praise” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “honor.” In some languages this can be translated as “You must always tell the Lord God how great he is.” For the Lord, see 3.2 and 3.14.

Ask him that your ways may be made straight … all your paths and plans may prosper: Ways and paths are of course a person’s actions, while plans are intended actions. Again we have two parallel clauses that have similar meaning. In a number of languages translators may keep the metaphors of ways and paths; in other languages the metaphors may be discarded. Good News Translation “Ask him to make you prosper in whatever you set out to do” conveys something of the original metaphor in the phrase “set out to.” This also incorporates the idea of plans. Contemporary English Version also has a good model: “and pray for his guidance, so you will be successful in whatever you do.”

In the middle of this verse, after the words the Lord himself, we rejoin the Greek text we are following, along with Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Revised Standard Version, and New American Bible. See the note above at 4.6. There is a problem, however, with how this material is to be related to the context. New Revised Standard Version and Contemporary English Version take the Lord himself will give them good counsel to qualify the previous statement that none of the nations has understanding; that is, no people other than the Jews possess understanding, but God will give them sound guidance. Good News Translation understands the clause about other nations’ lack of wisdom to be an unqualified statement. “He is the source of all good things” then begins a new sentence. The Greek text, however, does say “good counsel.” And furthermore, the Greek does not speak in the second person of destroying “you” or bringing “you to certain death.” The object is not identified—it could be the other nations (New Revised Standard Version), or any other person, such as “you” (Good News Translation) or “man” (New American Bible, the New American Bible addition “he raises a man up” derives from the Old Latin). Translators are urged to follow the New Revised Standard Version and Contemporary English Version interpretation. Contemporary English Version relates the two clauses as follows: “No other nations have understanding, but the Lord can either make them wise or bring them to ruin.”

He casts down to deepest Hades: Deepest Hades refers to the deepest, most inaccessible regions of the underworld, the Hebrew Sheol (see the note on 3.10). Good News Translation “destroy you and bring you to certain death” shifts the focus, but preserves the forceful impact. An alternative translation model for the first part of this verse is:

• You must continually tell the Lord how great he is, and pray to him to guide you, so that you will be successful in everything you do. The people of other nations have no understanding [or, wisdom], but the Lord himself can make them wise or destroy them.

So now, my child, remember these commandments: The connector So now may also be rendered “Be sure” or “Take care,” and this clause may be expressed “My son, be sure to keep in mind everything I have told you to do” (Contemporary English Version). For my child see 2.2.

Do not let them be erased from your heart: The figure in the Greek of not allowing the commandments to be erased from your heart presupposes another image of the commandments having been written on the heart (compare Jer 31.33). The Good News Translation warning not to “forget them for one minute” again shifts the focus, but rightly preserves the emphasis on permanence.

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.