Exegesis:

hē de Martha periespato peri pollēn diakonian ‘but Martha was distracted by much service, i.e. by many duties.’

perispaō lit. ‘to drag around,’ here figuratively of duties that keep one going to and fro.

diakonia ‘service,’ here ‘task,’ ‘duty.’

epistasa ‘approaching,’ cf. on 2.38.

ou melei soi hoti… ‘is it nothing to you that…,’ ‘don’t you care/mind that…?’ melei.

hoti hē adelphē mou monēn me katelipen diakonein ‘that my sister has left me alone to serve.’ diakonein is infinitive of result. kataleipō means here ‘to leave without help.’ The clause appears to imply that Mary did not help her sister from the beginning.

eipe oun autē hina moi sunantilabētai ‘tell her then that she should help me.’ oun ‘then’ is inferential and implies ‘if you really care, then….’

sunantilambanomai ‘to help,’ ‘to lend a hand,’ ‘to come to the aid of.’

Translation:

Martha was distracted with much serving refers to Martha’s state of mind, i.e. her feeling very busy, and to the correlated activity, i.e. her doing many things for her guest(s). This has been variously expressed, e.g. ‘all kinds of work to do had gone to M.’s heart’ (Tzeltal), ‘M. was wearing-herself-out how/the-way her feeding them’ (Tboli), ‘because much work fell to M., her agitation flew/flared-up’ (Marathi), ‘M.’s mind was stirred up with excess of service’ (Zarma), ‘she danced to and fro in serving’ (Uab Meto), ‘much work overwhelmed M.’ (Sranan Tongo). To serve see on 4.39.

She went to him, or, better to bring out that Martha comes up to Jesus for a moment only (as indicated by the punctiliar aorist), ‘she came-near for a moment’ (Javanese, Toraja-Sa’dan).

Do you not care that, expecting a negative answer. The phrase has been expressed variously, ‘do you feel it is good that’ (Tzeltal), ‘you haven’t been thinking of the fact that’ (Tboli).

That my sister has left me to serve alone, or, ‘that my sister has left me without help, so that now I must serve alone,’ ‘that my sister leaves to me (all) our (exclus.) work, or, (all) the work we (two) have to do,’ ‘that my sister does not help me work’; or again, ‘that I do all the work and my sister does not do anything (or, my sister nothing).’

Help, or, ‘assist,’ ‘work with’; or ‘do-together-with,’ a derivation of ‘companion/associate’ (Batak Toba).

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.