Exegesis:

kalesas de deka doulous heautou lit. ‘after calling ten slaves of his,’ i.e. ‘ten of his slaves.’

edōken autois deka mnas ‘he gave them ten minas,’ i.e. one each.

mna ‘mina,’ a Greek monetary unit of about eighteen to twenty dollars.

pragmateusasthe en hō erchomai ‘do business until I come back.’

pragmateuomai ‘to conduct business,’ ‘to trade.’

en hō lit. ‘during (the time) which,’ ‘while,’ here equivalent to heōs ‘until.’

Translation:

Calling…, he gave, or, “he summoned … and gave” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation). To call is used here in the sense of, ‘to order to appear before one.’

He gave them ten pounds, preferably, “he … gave them a pound each” (New English Bible). Pound. One may transliterate the Greek word, or the Hebrew word it represents (maneh); or one may translate it by an expression built on the rendering of Gr. dēnarion (cf. on 10.35), e.g. ‘hundred pieces of silver.’ Some other renderings are, ‘a sum of money’ (Navajo), ‘a gold piece of money’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘silver money one catty’ (cf. Balinese).

Trade with these, i.e. use this to trade/do-business. Most languages possess a specific word for ‘to trade with,’ which in Batak Toba is a causative derivation of ‘market’; some other renderings used are, ‘to work with’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘to buy and sell’ (cf. Javanese).

Till I come (i.e. come back), or, “while I am away” (New English Bible).

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.