Exegesis:

apokritheis ‘answering,’ i.e. to his father’s pleading.

idou ‘behold,’ emphatic introduction of what follows.

tosauta etē douleuō soi lit. ‘so many years I am serving you,’ i.e. ‘so many years I have served you, and am still serving you.’ tosauta etē is accusative of duration.

douleuō (also 16.13) ‘to serve as a doulos, i.e. as a slave, or, servant.’

kai oudepote entolēn sou parēlthon ‘and I never once disobeyed an order of yours.’ The aorist tense of parēlthon is punctiliar. For parerchomai cf. on 11.42.

kai emoi oudepote edōkas eriphon ‘and to me you never once gave a kid.’ emoi is emphatic.

eriphos ‘kid,’ ‘young he-goat,’ cheap as compared with the fatted calf.

hina meta tōn philōn mou euphranthō ‘that I might enjoy myself with my friends,’ i.e. by means of a meal together.

Translation:

Honorifics, again, in Javanese and related languages, but now with another intention than in v. 21: the honorific form of elder son’s words is sarcastic rather than respectful, treating the father as a stranger.

Lo, cf. on “behold” in 1.20.

I have served you, or, ‘I have kept on working for you’ (Ekari), ‘I have been your servant, or, like a servant of yours.’

I never disobeyed your command, or, ‘I never transgressed your command/word,’ ‘I never failed to do what you commanded/told me (to do)’; in Sranan Tongo the idiom is, ‘never I passed your mouth.’ Cf. also on “disobedient” in 1.17.

A kid, or, more disdainfully, “so much as a kid” (New English Bible), “even a goat” (Good News Translation).

That I might make merry with my friends, or, ‘to-be-used by me to feast together-with’ (Sundanese).

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.