He also spoke: It will be good to identify Raguel as the speaker, unless it is clear that He refers back to Raguel in verse 6. It is possible to say, for example, “Raguel said” (Contemporary English Version).

For Blessings on you, see the comment on 5.17.

Son of a good and noble father focuses on Tobias, as does the Greek. Good News Translation “Your father is a good and noble man” shifts the focus easily to Tobit, who is in focus in the next sentence. Good and noble are almost identical in meaning and together they refer to someone who lives a good and honest life. If translators wish to use separate terms here, something like “good and respectable man” is possible; or we may explain the two terms, for example, “a man who does good deeds and has much face.” Compare the note on 6.12.

O most miserable of calamities: This is a literal translation of a literary device known as “apostrophe,” in which someone addresses an object, or an abstract concept. Although this device may work in other languages, it sounds strange and impossibly artificial in modern English. Good News Translation “What a terrible tragedy,” New American Bible “what a terrible misfortune,” and Contemporary English Version “It’s a terrible shame” are successful attempts to express the exclamation in a more natural way.

Upright and beneficent: New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and New American Bible have chosen different adjectives to translate the two expressions in Greek (one of which is literally “doing alms”). Their renderings are, respectively, upright and beneficent (New Revised Standard Version), “honest and generous” (Good News Translation), and “righteous and charitable” (New American Bible). For “alms” or “almsgiving” see 4.7, 10.

Has become blind: The Greek text we are following presents a puzzling picture. Tobias answers Edna’s question, and says that his father is in good health, whereupon Raguel bemoans Tobit’s blindness. How did he learn of this blindness? Tobias has not informed him. Perhaps the narrator leaves us to assume that in the more than four years of Tobit’s blindness (see 2.10) Raguel has had ample opportunity to learn of it, but he can still ask the son if his father is still alive and in otherwise good health. But since all three, Raguel, Edna, and Sarah, weep over Tobit (7.8), it does seem that they have just found out about the blindness at this point. Further, this account gives the impression that Raguel and his family have not even known until now of Tobias’s existence (compare 3.15), although Tobias has heard of Sarah (6.14-15).

The other Greek text (see the New Revised Standard Version footnote) adds after noble father, “But when he heard [presumably from Tobias] that Tobit had lost his eyesight, he wept in sorrow.” (The words “Then he said” in the New Revised Standard Version note are not actually in the other Greek text. They have been added in the note for translational reasons.) The solution may be in the Greek verb “he wept.” It occurs at the end of verse 6 as well as at the end of this addition; perhaps a scribe wrote the verb at the end of verse 6, and then, looking back at his copy, his eye fell on the second occurrence of the verb; he then omitted the additional, explanatory sentence. This is a reasonable explanation, and New American Bible, with some rearrangement of material, adopts it. This difficulty may account for the strange use of quotation marks in New Revised Standard Version at this point. (“… father!” “O most…”) It looks as though the New Revised Standard Version committee may at one time have included the additional sentence, but on taking it out, failed to take out the quotation marks.

We should also consider the possibility that the extra sentence is simply an attempt by a scribe to solve the problem of how Raguel learns of Tobit’s blindness. We would assume from 3.15 that the two families had such little contact that Sarah did not even know that Tobit had a son. A further bit of awkwardness in the narrative is caused by the third use of the verb “he wept” at the end of verse 7. It can sound as if Raguel is weeping a second time. Some translations (such as New American Bible) say at the end of verse 7 something like “He continued to weep.” The Handbook suggests that translators follow New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, but those who feel that the addition is helpful should feel free to use it.

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.