Exegesis:
ouchi pente strouthia pōlountai assariōn duo ‘are not five sparrows sold for two cents,’ i.e. “do not sparrows sell five for two cents” (An American Translation). The clause means that sparrows are of very little value. For ouchi cf. on 6.39.
strouthion (also v. 7) ‘sparrow,’ or, in a more general sense, ‘bird.’
pōleō ‘to sell,’ here in the passive.
assarion a Latin loanword. It is one of the smallest coins used in Roman coinage and best rendered as ‘cent,’ ‘penny’ etc.
kai hen ex autōn ouk estin epilelēsmenon enōpion tou theou ‘and (yet) not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God.’ kai hen with following negation is emphatic, ‘not even one….’ For enōpion cf. on 1.15.
epilanthanomai ‘to forget,’ ‘to overlook.’ The perfect tense refers to a state, or, situation in which one is overlooked.
Translation:
In the interrogative sentence the price is in focus rather than the process of selling; hence some idiomatic renderings omit the verb, e.g. ‘isn’t the price of five sparrows two pennies?’ (cf. Tae’ 1933), “are not sparrows five for twopence?” (New English Bible). The force of the question is, ‘everyone knows that….’
Sparrow, or the name of a common small bird, e.g. a rice-eating finch (some Indonesian languages), or simply ‘small bird’ (Sranan Tongo).
Penny should preferably be rendered by the name of a small coin used in the culture, but not the smallest one, for which see “copper coin” (21.2). Where no distinctive names are available or usable one may say ‘small coin,’ ‘piece of money of small value.’
Forgotten before God, or not to obscure the fact that God is the implied agent, “forgotten in the thoughts of God” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), or simply ‘forgotten by God,’ ‘God forgets’ (cf. e.g. Shona 1966, Sranan Tongo).
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.