Exegesis:
tis anthrōpos ex humōn … ou kataleipei ‘what man of you … does not leave?,’ rhetorical question, the obvious answer being: everyone. anthrōpos is virtually redundant.
echōn hekaton probata kai apolesas ex autōn hen lit. ‘having a hundred sheep and having lost one of them.’ echōn denotes a prevailing situation (present tense) and apolesas a punctiliar event (aorist tense). The latter does not suggest want of care.
en tē erēmō ‘in the pasture land.’
poreuetai epi to apolōlos ‘(does not) go in search of the lost (sheep),’ modified by interrogative ou, as kataleipei (see above).
heōs heurē auto ‘till he finds it,’ denoting the tenacity of the seeker.
Translation:
For possibly necessary changes of structure cf. 14.5.
A hundred sheep … the ninety-nine. Exact arithmetical equivalence may be undesirable, as may be clear from the following remarks. In the Greek the first numeral, a basic unit in the numerical system, functions as a round number for a considerable quantity; hence in Ekari (where the highest basic unit is ‘sixty,’ and the arithmetical equivalent of “hundred” would be ‘forty of the second sixty’) the closest natural equivalent of the phrase is ‘sixty sheep … fifty-nine’ (to which this version adds a footnote giving the exact number). In some African languages “ninety-nine” has to be rendered as ‘five (tens) and four tens and five and four,’ a rather cumbersome phrase which moreover does not go too well with the term used to translate “hundred”. In such a case a more generic rendering is probably preferable, e.g. ‘many sheep … the others,’ ‘a flock (cf. 2.8) of sheep … the rest (of the flock).’
He has lost one of them, i.e. he finds that one sheep is missing from his flock, referring to inadvertent loss. In several receptor languages the corresponding verb, if used in a transitive-active form, suggests a deliberate act, which is acceptable e.g. in “loses his life for his sake” (9.24) but not here; or it implies wastefulness (e.g. in Zarma, which therefore uses such a form for “squandered” in v. 13). In such languages intransitive-passive forms are often to be used here and in v. 8, cf. e.g. ‘he suffered-the-loss of one…’ (Bahasa Indonesia, similarly Shona 1963), or, changing the subject, ‘one … gets-lost (with regard) to him’ (East Nyanja, Zarma). Elsewhere ‘to lose/get-lost’ can be said only of lifeless objects, but animals and/or human beings are said ‘to go-astray,’ cf. also Batak Toba, which in v. 4b says ‘the one not to-be-seen’; the same two renderings are used (in expositions, not in the Bible translation) in East Nyanja, Lomwe, Yao. Similar adjustments may be required in v. 6 and/or vv. 24, 32. If that is the case demands of idiom will interfere with demands of style, since the differentiation required for an idiomatic translation does not allow the preservation of the repeated occurrence of forms of ‘to lose,’ which is a characteristic stylistic feature of this chapter.
Leave, or ‘go-away-from’ (Balinese, Tae’).
Wilderness. In seeking an appropriate rendering one should remember that the term refers here to a place fit for pasturage (cf. New English Bible‘s “open pasture”).
Until, i.e. seeking until, or, not stopping before.
For to find see 2.12.
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.