Exegesis:

The first O.T. passage quoted is from Ex. 20.12 (cf. Deut. 5.16); the second is from Ex. 21.17.

tima (cf. v. 6) ‘you must honor.’

ho kakologōn (9.39) ‘he who reviles,’ ‘he who insults.’

thanatō teleutatō ‘with death he is to die,’ ‘he must certainly die’: for similar constructions denoting emphasis cf. 4.41; 5.42.

thanatos (9.1; 10.33; 13.12; 14.34, 64) ‘death.’

teleutaō (9.48) ‘come to an end,’ ‘die.’

Translation:

Honor is in this context primarily ‘love’ and ‘respect’ (Sayula Popoluca). In some languages the equivalent is ‘do good for’ (Shipibo-Conibo).

Speak evil of is not ‘to curse’ or ‘to cast a spell on.’ It is simply ‘to speak bad words about’ or ‘to speak bad to.’

Let him surely die must not be translated in the sense of ‘permit him to die’ (as in some translations) or ‘he will certainly die.’ It should be rendered to mean ‘he must be killed,’ ‘he must certainly be put to death,’ or ‘you must kill the one who speaks evil of his father or his mother.’

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 .