Exegesis:

kai idou lit. ‘and behold,’ cf. on 1.20.

kai houtos archōn tēs sunagōgēs hupērchen ‘and he was leader of the synagogue,’ or archisunagōgos (cf. on v. 49). The article tēs before sunagōgēs suggests that the reference is to the one local synagogue. Syntactically the clause is best understood as a free continuation of the (nominal) relative clause hō onoma Iairos ‘whose name was Jairus.’ For huparchō cf. on 7.25.

pesōn para tous podas tou Iēsou ‘falling at Jesus’ feet.’ Semantically there is no difference between this phrase (also 17.16 where epi prosōpon ‘on his face’ is added) and prospiptein with dative (cf. 5.8; 8.28, 47), ‘to fall down before.’ In both phrases it is implied that the face touches the ground before the feet of the other person involved.

parekalei auton eiselthein eis ton oikon autou ‘he begged him to come to his house.’ For parakaleō cf. on 3.18.

(V. 42a) hoti thugatēr monogenēs ēn autō hōs etōn dōdeka kai autē apethnēsken ‘for he had an only daughter of about twelve years and she was dying,’ explaining Jairus’ request. Syntactically the two clauses are co-ordinate but semantically the second clause is the most important, to which the first one is subordinate. monogenēs implies that the girl was an only child (cf. on 7.12 and Phillips). apethnēsken means that she was about to die.

Translation:

Ruler of the synagogue, or, ‘one who directed the affairs of the synagogue,’ ‘the head/chief of the s.’ (Sundanese, Sranan Tongo). Where synagogue has been rendered as ‘mosque’ a term denoting a comparable Muslim official has been used, e.g. in Malay.

Falling at Jesus’ feet, cf. on “he fell down at Jesus’ knees” in 5.8.

Besought him to come to his house. One or both pronouns may have to be specified. For to beseech cf. on 5.12; Tboli shifts to direct discourse, ‘appealed to Jesus, he said, “Would you call-in as-a-favour-to me at my house” .’

(V. 42a) Changing the sentence structure in agreement with its semantic value one may say, “for his daughter, an only child about twelve years old, was dying” (Phillips, similarly e.g. in Javanese), or, ‘because his daughter was dying. She was his only child, about twelve years old.’

He had an only daughter may have to be described, cf. e.g. ‘his daughter, he had no other child (or, no child but her)’; cf. also on 7.12.

Was dying is variously rendered, ‘was nearly dead, or, near to dying’ (Bahasa Indonesia), ‘very ill, about to die’ (Javanese), ‘was (already) in her death agony’ (Shona), ‘already unconscious’ (Tboli), ‘will only die (i.e. she cannot but die)’ (Toraja-Sa’dan). Words with the general meaning of ‘nearly,’ ‘almost,’ ‘about,’ have to be handled carefully in some languages (e.g. Kele, Balinese), because they may imply an awareness of the speaker that the event referred to, though dreaded, did not actually happen. Cf. also on “at the point of death” in 7.2.