Exegesis:
kai connects the clause of vv. 8f, expressing an event, with the clause of v. 10, which describes an accompanying circumstance. The relevance of mentioning this circumstance becomes clear in v. 21. Several translations shift from co-ordination of vv. 8f and 10 to subordination of v. 10 to vv. 8f, e.g. “while all the throng of people was outside” (An American Translation, cf. also Moffatt, Brouwer, Menge).
pan to plēthos … tou laou ‘the whole body of the people.’
plēthos ‘large number,’ ‘multitude’ but often denoting a body of people gathered for religious fellowship or worship (cf. e.g. Acts 15.30; 19.9; also Lk. 19.37 where it refers to the body or community of Jesus’ disciples).
laos ‘people,’ ‘crowd,’ in the latter meaning without religious connotation (so in the majority of occurrences in Luke). Several translators render pan to plēthos tou laou in one expression, as ‘all the people’ (Twentieth Century New Testament, Williams) where both plēthos and laos are taken in a non-religious meaning. Others (New English Bible, The Four Gospels – a New Translation, Phillips) render ‘the whole’ or ‘the crowded congregation,’ without indicating which Greek word is given a religious meaning. If plēthos is taken in its religious sense, the translation is ‘the whole worshipping body of the crowd’ and the genitive is definitive: ‘consisting of the crowd’; if laos is taken to mean ‘the people of God in worship,’ the translation is ‘the whole crowd of the (worshipping) people.’ Both interpretations admit of the translations of New English Bible, The Four Gospels – a New Translation and Phillips, but the former interpretation is more probable.
ēn … proseuchomenon exō: three interpretations are possible: (1) ēn may be independent ‘was there’ or ‘there was’; (2) ēn may go with proseuchomenon as a periphrastic imperfect: ‘was praying’ or ‘was in prayer’ (the use of a participle with a form of einai ‘to be’ instead of the imperfect is common in the N.T. and serves to emphasize the durative aspect); (3) ēn may go with exō, ‘was outside, praying.’ The article to (plēthos) makes (1) highly improbable, and the order of the Greek words suggests (2), but translations as “stayed outside and prayed” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation) do no violence to the sense of the Greek text, since the emphasis is on the fact that the people were outside while Zechariah had gone into the temple where was the scene of what was to happen.
exō ‘outside,’ here outside the temple building (naos) but within the temple precincts (hieron).
tē hōra tou thumiamatos ‘at the hour,’ or, ‘time of the incense offering.’
hōra ‘hour,’ here of the time when something takes place.
thumiama ‘incense offering’; incense offerings were burnt at sunrise and at sunset. Probably, though not quite certain, the evening incense is meant here because of the crowd that is present, cf. Acts 3.1.
Translation:
When the verse is rendered as an independent sentence, the transition from v. 9 to v. 10 may require special care. In some cases a connective like ‘meanwhile’ may suffice, but in others a more explicit transition must be made, e.g. by adding some such phrase as, ‘when he was doing so’; or by moving forward the final phrase, e.g., ‘while he burnt it, all the people were praying…’ (Tboli), similarly in Shipibo-Conibo, which moreover has to state explicitly that Z. entered the sanctuary, and therefore renders v. 9b as statement not of purpose but of performance, ‘And so he entered deep in God’s house, in order to burn….’
The whole multitude of the people, interpreted as having no specific religious connotation, can be rendered, ‘very many people,’ ‘a very big heap of men’ (Sranan Tongo), and cf. on “multitudes” in 3.7. If the other interpretation is followed, one may say, ‘all those who gathered there for worship.’ For people cf. below on v. 17.
Outside (i.e. outside the place where Zechariah was officiating, i.e. the sanctuary) usually is easy to translate, but some renderings of Gr. naos ask for specific adjustments; thus the Balinese version uses ‘in the middle court,’ the term indicating the court in front of the ‘inner-part.’
At the hour of incense, or, ‘when the incense was burnt/offered,’ ‘when the incense-offering was made,’ or, ‘when Zechariah burnt those things of smell of pleasantness’ (Kituba).
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.