8:2a

I have compassion for this crowd: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as have compassion means “have understanding and pity” or “feel sympathy.” A person with compassion wants to help. Jesus knew that the people would have difficulty returning home because of their hunger, so he felt sympathy and wanted to help them.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

I feel sorry for these people (Good News Bible)
-or-
I sympathize with these people

You may have an idiomatic way to translate this term. The Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English has one example in English:

My heart goes out to this crowd

This same verb occurs in 6:34b.

this crowd: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as this crowd refers to the large crowd that was mentioned in 8:1a.

8:2b–c

In 8:2c Jesus told his disciples the reason that he felt compassion for the people: “they…have nothing to eat.” In 8:2b Jesus mentioned that they had been with him for three days. That fact was background information.

As you translate the connection between 8:2a and 8:2b, your translation should not imply that Jesus felt sorry for the people only because they had been with him for three days (8:2b). If a reason connector would imply this in your language, you may decide to use no connector, as the New International Version does:

I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.

See the General Comment on 8:2a–c at the end of this note for more information on how to translate the connections.

they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat: The Greek text does not say how long the people were without food. Some people may have been without food for the whole three days. Others may have brought food with them but eaten it all. Since most English versions are vague about this, it is good to translate 8:2c in a general way. For example:

they don’t have anything to eat (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
they have no food

General Comment on 8:2a–c

In some languages it may be necessary to change the order of these verse parts so that you can express the connections between the clauses in a natural way. Here are some ways to do this in English:

2b
Because these people have already been with me for three days 2cand have nothing to eat, 2aI feel very sorry for them.
-or-
2bThese people have already been with me for three days. 2cThey have nothing to eat, 2aso I feel very sorry for them.

Notice that the reason or result connectors are underlined in the examples. Translate this verse in a way that is natural in your language.

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