Exegesis:
kai idontes auton exeplagēsan ‘and when they saw him they were astonished,’ resuming the subject of heuron in v. 46, i.e. his parents.
ekplēssomai ‘to be astonished,’ stronger than existamai (v. 47).
ti epoiēsas hēmin houtōs ‘why have you done to us like this,’ i.e. “why have you treated us like this” (New English Bible); the phrase is clearly reproachful.
ho patēr sou kagō odunōmenoi ezētoumen se ‘your father and I were looking for you in great anguish.’ The subject consists of a noun in the 3rd person and a pronoun in the 1st, hence the verb is in the 1st person plural. odunōmenoi ‘(being) in great anguish’ goes with the subject of the verb ezētoumen, and indicates the state of mind in which Joseph and Mary were during their search.
odunaomai (also 16.24) ‘to feel pain,’ here of mental pain.
Translation:
They, or to avoid ambiguity, ‘they-two,’ or, ‘his parents.’
Astonished, cf. on “wondered” in 1.21.
Son (lit. ‘child,’ cf. on 1.7), or, ‘my child/son/boy’; in Balinese ‘ah, little-one’ is the closest natural equivalent.
Why have you treated us so, or, ‘why have you done this to us’; or more explicitly reproachful, by using a more specific rendering of “why”, cf. ‘how could you…,’ and/or of the verb, e.g. ‘cause-trouble-to’ (Balinese), ‘behave badly towards,’ or adverb (Javanese, which adds to ‘so’ a particle expressing disapproval). In some languages, e.g. Toraja-Sa’dan, to treat so is rendered by a causative derivation of ‘so.’ The pronoun us must sometimes be specified, e.g. ‘us, your parents.’
Your father and I have … The combination of a compound subject (consisting of a reference to a third and first person singular) with the verb may require some adaptation, such as adding the pronoun of the first person plural, e.g. ‘we (or, we-two), your father and I, …’ (followed by the verb in plural or dual, where such categories exist; cf. Bible de Jérusalem); or a shift to the singular, e.g. ‘I, together with your father (or, and your father also).’ In Tboli the singular pronoun is absorbed by the plural, so to speak, cf. ‘look, us two your father continually sorrowful look-for you.’ Your father should be rendered by the term that is normally used in the receptor language by the mother when speaking about her husband to the children, e.g. ‘father,’ treated as a proper name, as shown by the use of a name qualifier (Balinese). Similarly the pronoun I should be rendered by the form normally used in family life, e.g. ‘mother’ (in the sense of ‘I, your mother’) in Balinese and Sundanese. To employ the humble form used by a speaker when addressing a person of superior rank (as done by a few versions in languages using honorifics) is not advisable.
Anxiously. Versions in English and several other languages have to render the attributive participle, qualifying the state of mind of the agent, by an adverbial expression, qualifying the action performed by the agent while being in that state of mind. Elsewhere it is better to shift to a co-ordinate verbal clause, ‘and we were worrying,’ “and have been very anxious” (An American Translation). Several translators follow An American Translation in using a stronger expression than Revised Standard Version does, e.g. ‘much distressed/troubled’ (Thai, Tagalog, Ekari, Sundanese), “in anguish and grief” (Translator’s New Testament), in order to give expression to the emphatic position the word has in the clause. For anxious, i.e. worrying and apprehensive of ills that may happen, cf. on 10.41.
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.