Exegesis:
pesountai stomati machairēs ‘they will fall by the edge of the sword.’ The subject of pesountai is best interpreted as the members of the Jewish people.
piptō ‘to fall,’ here, ‘to be slain,’ ‘to be killed.’
stoma lit. ‘mouth,’ here, ‘point,’ or, ‘edge.’
aichmalōtisthēsontai eis ta ethnē panta ‘they will be scattered as prisoners over all the peoples,’ ethnē may refer here to ‘nations’ or ‘peoples’ in a neutral sense, or, like in hupo ethnōn in the same verse, to ‘gentile people’ or ‘Gentiles.’ The former appears to be preferable.
aichmalōtizō ‘to take captive,’ here in the passive with eis ta ethnē panta to denote the scattering of the captives over the earth.
Ierousalēm estai patoumenē hupo ethnōn ‘Jerusalem will be trampled over by Gentiles,’ not denoting an event but a situation in the future. For the periphrasis of the future cf. on v. 17. For pateō cf. on 10.19.
achri hou plērōthōsin kairoi ethnōn ‘till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.’
achri hou ‘till the time when,’ with chronou understood.
kairoi ethnōn ‘the times of the Gentiles,’ probably referring to the time in which the Gentiles exercise judgment, though the exact meaning of the phrase is very uncertain, cf. commentaries.
Translation:
Fall by the edge of the sword, or, ‘fall, being cut down by the sword’ (Ekari), or, ‘sharp choppers will cut them down (lit. cut-and-kill them)’ (Sranan Tongo); or simply, “be killed by the sword” (Good News Translation, similarly Tae’), ‘the enemy will kill them with the sword,’ ‘perish in war.’ Some idiomatic phrases used are, ‘die eaten by the sword’ (Malay), ‘be passed along the thread of the sword’ (Bible de Jérusalem). Sword, cf. below on 22.36.
And introduces an alternative future event here; hence ‘or’ may be preferable.
Be led captive among all nations, or, “carried off as prisoners among all nations” (An American Translation), ‘be taken captive and led away among all nations’; if an active construction is required, ‘the enemy’ is best taken as agent. Among all nations, or more explicitly locative, ‘everywhere among the nations,’ “into all countries” (New English Bible), ‘all over the earth.’ For captive see on 4.18.
Trodden down, or non-figuratively, ‘utterly destroyed’ (cf. Bahasa Indonesia RC).
Gentiles, see on 2.32.
Until, or, ‘(and this will go on) up to the moment that,’ ‘and this will not end before.’
Times of the Gentiles. If the connexion between the two nouns must be specified, one may say, ‘the period the Gentiles (or, they) (still) have power,’ ‘the time it is in the hands of people-from-other-places’ (Tzeltal), ‘time-of those governments-of men Gentile’ (Trukese).
Are fulfilled, or, ‘have run their full course,’ ‘has come to an end’ (cf. Balinese), ‘is complete’ (Bahasa Indonesia).
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.