Exegesis:
anthrōpō oikodomounti oikian hos eskapsen kai ebathunen ‘a man building a house who dug deep.’ The participle in the present tense oikodomounti refers to the general process, i.e. that of building a house, in which the specific acts take place, to which eskapsen kai ebathunen (aorist tense) refer.
skaptō (also 13.8) ‘to dig,’ here intransitive.
bathunō ‘make deep,’ or, ‘go deep,’ here used as a hendiadys together with eskapsen and expressing together one concept, i.e. that of digging deep.
ethēken themelion epi tēn petran ‘he laid the foundation on the rock.’ The article tēn before petran is generic, cf. “upon rock” (Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament).
themelios ‘foundation,’ ‘basis,’ here of the foundation of a building.
plēmmurēs de genomenēs ‘when there came a flood.’ de marks the transition to the next part of the story. genomenēs is inceptive, hence the translation ‘came.’ plēmmura. The picture is that of an overflowing river, as ho potamos shows.
proserēxen ho potamos tē oikia ekeinē ‘the river broke against that house.’
prosrēsso (also v. 49), intransitive, ‘to burst upon,’ ‘to break against.’ Here its meaning is determined by the picture of the overflowing river.
potamos (also v. 49) ‘river.’ The article does not imply a reference to a specific river but to the river which the parable presupposes.
kai ouk ischusen saleusai autēn ‘and was unable to shake it.’
ischuō ‘to have power,’ ‘to be able,’ ‘to be strong enough,’ with following infinitive.
dia to kalōs oikodomēsthai autēn lit. ‘because of its having been well built,’ articular accusative and infinitive.
Translation:
In order to bring out that the point of comparison is not in the building but in the subsequent acts that some adjustments may be necessary, e.g. ‘he is like a housebuilder, who dug…’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC; similarly Marathi, which renders the relative clause as a co-ordinated sentence), ‘he resembles a man who, when (he was) building a house, dug…’ (cf. Bible de Jérusalem); or where co-ordination is preferable, ‘his case is like this: a housebuilder dug…, or, a man was building a house; he dug….’ To build (also in 6.49; 7.5; 11.47f; 12.18; 14.28, 30; 17.28; 20.17) is sometimes rendered by a basically more generic term, e.g. ‘to erect/cause-to-stand’ (Bahasa Indonesia, Trukese, Pohnpeian), ‘to make’ (Javanese, Barrow Eskimo), ‘to bind/tie’ (West Nyanja).
To dig deep, i.e. to make deep holes/cavities, to remove much earth.
And laid the foundation upon rock may require rather radical adaptations, e.g. ‘caused it to receive strength on rock’ (Tzeltal), ‘till he reached rock’ (Shona 1966, similarly Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘its posts reaching-down to the rock’ (Tae’). Foundation, or, ‘base,’ ‘support’ (Sranan Tongo, lit. stone-foot). Upon rock, or, ‘upon strong stones’ (Sranan Tongo). Where rock is unknown one may use ‘upon a solid layer underneath’ (such as sand under marshy ground); or, with more radical adjustments, ‘deep the holes for his posts’ (Tboli, where all houses are built off the ground, and deep holes make sturdy houses).
A flood arose, or, ‘flooding water came,’ ‘a/the river started to flood/overflow.’
The stream, or, ‘the river,’ ‘the/its water,’ or simply, ‘it,’ the pronoun referring back to the flood or river.
And could not shake it, or, ‘but it (i.e. the flooding river) could not shake that house,’ or, ‘it (i.e. the house) did not shake because of it’ (Marathi, shifting to an intransitive construction). Shake, or, ‘cause to totter’ (Nieuwe Vertaling), ‘cause-to-move’ (Batak Toba, Pohnpeian).
Because it had been well built, or, ‘because the man had built it/his house well.’
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.