Exegesis:
perilupos (14.34) ‘very sad,’ ‘deeply grieved’; possibly ‘greatly annoyed’ (Manson), ‘very vexed’ (Moffatt).
orkous (only here in Mark) ‘oaths,’ ‘vows.’
anakeimenous (14.18; 16.14) ‘(the men) reclining at (the table),’ i.e. ‘the guests.’ Most translators take ‘because of his oaths and his guests’ with what follows (as does Revised Standard Version); Translator’s New Testament, however, takes it with what precedes: ‘The king was deeply distressed on account of his oaths and those dining with him.’
ouk ēthelēsen athetēsai autēn ‘he did not want to refuse her.’
atheteō (7.9) ‘reject’; the meaning here could be ‘disappoint her’ (by breaking his word to her).
Translation:
It is usually necessary to distinguish carefully between sorry and sorrow, (though the Greek perilupos may be used for both concepts), especially if the receptor language distinguishes between emotional feelings which are caused by what one has done himself and those which arise because of sympathy for the plight of others. Expressions for sorry are often quite figurative, e.g. ‘to be heavy in the stomach’ (Uduk) and ‘to have a painful heart’ (Kpelle).
For oath, see vowed, 6.23. Guerrero Amuzgo renders this expression as ‘because of the tight (i.e. ‘binding’) word which he had said to her face’ (a verb, rather than a noun, is required). In some languages for oath one can use ‘a strong promise’ (Barrow Eskimo).
Guests may be described as ‘people who have been invited to the feast,’ but there is generally some more direct and specific way of designating such persons.
Break his word to her is strictly figurative language, and in many languages one cannot ‘break a word,’ but it may be possible ‘to kill a word’ or ‘to forget a word.’ In Cashibo-Cacataibo one must say ‘did not want to say, I will not do it,’ a full description in the form of direct discourse. Guerrero Amuzgo renders this expression as ‘he did not want to have his heart change his word to that woman’s face,’ in which the term ‘face’ is a means of identifying the direction of speaking.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .