Exegesis:

kai sunerchetai palin ochlos ‘and the crowd gathers again.’

sunerchomai (14.53) ‘assemble,’ ‘gather,’ ‘come together.’

palin ‘again’: looks back at 3.7. It would not be correct to say ‘the same crowd’: it is simply the gathering together again of a crowd about Jesus.

hōste mē dunasthai autous (cf. 1.27 for this construction) ‘so that they were unable,’ ‘so that they could not.’

autous ‘they’: the reference is most likely to Jesus and his disciples.

mēde arton phagein ‘not even to eat bread,’ i.e. eat, “take food” (Translator’s New Testament).

Translation:

In order to avoid the impression that this was identically the same crowd following Jesus (though admittedly made up of many of the same people), one may say, ‘And again a crowd gathered together there….’ The occurrence of the article in Greek does not require one to translate as ‘the crowd,’ identifying these people with the group in 3.9.

They is likely to be badly misunderstood unless the reference is made more specific, for in many languages the only antecedent would be the ‘crowd.’ Accordingly in some languages the subject is made explicit as ‘Jesus and his disciples’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave, Amganad Ifugao).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .