Exegesis:
ouai soi (twice) ‘woe to you,’ ‘alas for you,’ cf. on 6.24.
Chorazin … Bēthsaïda ‘Chorazin … Bethsaida’ both close to Capernaum (v. 15).
ei en Turō kai Sidōni egenēthēsan hai dunameis … palai an … metenoēsan ‘if the miracles … had happened in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago.’ For this construction (unreal supposition in conditional clause, unreal case in main clause).
palai ‘long ago,’ in view of the duration of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee slightly hyperbolic and virtually equivalent to ‘immediately.’
metanoeō ‘to feel remorse,’ ‘to repent.’
hai dunameis hai genomenai en humin ‘the miracles that did happen in you,’ as contrasted with Tyre and Sidon where they did not happen.
en sakkō kai spodō kathēmenoi ‘sitting in sackcloth and ashes,’ going with metenoēsan.
sakkos ‘sackcloth,’ a garment of goat’s hair or camel’s hair, cf. IDB IV, 147. en sakkō means ‘clothed in sackcloth,’ and is a sign of remorse (here), or, mourning.
spodos ‘ashes.’ en spodō means ‘(sitting) in/upon ashes,’ cf. Is. 58.5; Job 2.8, a sign of remorse (here), or, of mourning.
Translation:
Woe to you (2 X), see on 6.24. In Toraja-Sa’dan, which possesses two synonymous expressions, literary standards make the parallel use of these phrases more satisfactory than mere repetition of one phrase, ‘to-their-end are your days, Chorazin! finished is what-is-measured-out to you, Bethsaida.’
If … etc., an unrealizable supposition, which may be expressed by a specific verbal form of construction (as e.g. in English, Javanese, Sranan Tongo) or by a modal particle (as e.g. in Balinese); or more explicitly by preposing a phrase meaning ‘suppose that,’ or by first denying the supposed fact, and then stating it as a condition, which may result here in something like, ‘the mighty works … have not been done in Tyre and Sidon, (but) if they had (been done there), they could have repented.’ But there are languages also that use a construction that differs in nothing from the normal conditional sentence, thus leaving it to the receptor to deduce its unreal character from the fact that he knows the stated condition not to be true. See also on 7.39.
If the mighty works done in you had been done in T. and S., or, where an agent has to be mentioned, ‘if someone had done in T. and S. the mighty works I have done in you.’ Mighty works and Phillips‘ rendering “demonstrations of God’s power”.
They, or, ‘those cities,’ ‘the people (who live) there,’ ‘the people of those cities.’
Would have repented long ago, or, ‘would not have waited long (or, delayed until now) to repent.’
Sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Better to indicate the function of this expression and the rite it refers to one may explicitly state its relationship with the verb, cf. e.g. ‘would long ago have been sitting in sackcloth and ashes to show that they repented’; cf. also Good News Translation. Some cultures know of similar rites, sufficiently close in form and function to make the expression understandable. Thus amongst the Shona to dress in an equivalent of sackcloth and go unwashed as a beggar, forms part of a ritual to reconcile a person’s parent who has died with a grievance against him. In other languages one of the two parts of the phrase “sitting in sackcloth and ashes” has such an equivalent, which could be used in the translation in order to clarify the function of the unknown part. In Sranan Tongo, for example, the first phrase is rendered by ‘keep mat-mourning,’ i.e. show mourning by sitting and sleeping on a mat, a traditional Surinam rite of heavy mourning; and in Ekari people smear their faces with ashes in grief and speak of sitting in ashes. Where this is not the case and the expression would not be understood, or could even be misleading (as it would be in Tepeuxila Cuicatec, where ‘sitting in ashes’ refers to one who spends his day sitting by the fire instead of working), the function may have to be substituted, either for the whole phrase, e.g. ‘they would surely have repented’ (Tboli), or for one of its parts, e.g. ‘wear clothing-of sadness’ (Pohnpeian, Trukese). Some further, minor adjustments may be necessary: sackcloth is often rendered by a word referring to a coarse kind of cloth, or by ‘clothing that hurts’ (Otomi of Mexico), ‘that which is scratchy’ (Central Mazahua), ‘rags’ (Tae,’ Zarma); in ashes may have to become ‘smeared, or, painted, themselves with ashes’ (Shona 1966, Huixtec), ‘having taken ash on their bodies’ (Marathi).
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.