Exegesis:
legō humin ‘I tell you,’ cf. on 3.8.
Sodomois … anektoteron estai ‘for Sodom it will be more tolerable.’
Sodoma (neuter plural) ‘Sodom.’
anektos ‘endurable,’ ‘tolerable,’ especially with reference to judgment.
en tē hēmera ekeinē ‘on that day,’ i.e. on the coming day of judgment, cf. v. 14.
Translation:
This sentence does not continue the words Jesus tells the disciples to speak, but gives his judgment of the fate of a city that rejects his disciples.
It shall be more tolerable … for Sodom than for that town. Some changes of structure that may be required are: adding a term for ‘suffering,’ ‘punishment,’ e.g. ‘there will be less suffering people in Sodom…’ (Kekchi), ‘the punishment of the city of S. will be lighter (or, less heavy/severe) than the punishment of that city’ (several Indonesian languages), or more generically, ‘what S. will experience shall be lighter than that town’ (Javanese); taking ‘Sodom’ as subject, e.g. “Sodom will fare better than that town” (An American Translation), ‘S. will have a less severe fate than that city’ (Bible de Jérusalem); making explicit the implied agent, e.g. ‘God will punish Sodom less severely than that town’; or, transposing the parts of the comparison, e.g. ‘that town will suffer more than S.’ (cf. Navajo). Some ways to express the comparative here are, ‘the Sodom people will suffer little (lit. eat comparatively little pain), while that town will suffer much (lit. eat much pain)’ (cf. Melpa), ‘it will be big, God’s punishing that town. To-the-extent it is a lie (i.e. much less) his punishing … Sodom…’ (cf. Tboli).
On that day, or making explicit the specific meaning, e.g. ‘at that great time’ (Melpa), ‘when the time of punishment arrives’ (Tzeltal), ‘when arrives that day of God’s judging people’ (Tboli, similarly Kituba), ‘on the day of judgment’ (cf. Navajo, Kele, Sinhala).
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.