Exegesis:
aneōchthē de to stoma autou parachrēma ‘and his mouth was opened at once.’
anoigō ‘to open’; when used with stoma ‘mouth’ the verb usually refers to the beginning of speech, cf. e.g. Mt. 5.23; 13.35; but here it refers to the restoration of the mouth to its proper function, cf. Mt. 20.33; Jn. 9.10, 14, 17, 26, 30, 32 (of the eyes) and Mk. 7.35 (of the ears).
parachrēma ‘at once,’ ‘immediately,’ a more literary word than the more common euthus or eutheōs. The place of parachrēma here between the two subjects of the clause is awkward and stresses its zeugmatic character, see next note.
kai hē glōssa autou ‘and his tongue,’ connected with aneōchthē by a zeugma, i.e. a construction which joins one verb with two different subjects; the normal verb with glōssa would be eluthē ‘was loosed’ (cf. Revised Standard Version). glōssa also 16.24.
kai elalei eulogōn ton theon ‘and he spoke, praising God’; the use of the phrase elalei eulogōn instead of the more simple ēulogei ‘he praised’ stresses the implication that he was now again able to speak; the participle eulogōn qualifies Zechariah’s speaking as praising God; the imperfect tense of elalei suggests that Zechariah continued to speak for some time.
eulogeō, see on v. 42; here it is used in a sense different from v. 42, with God as object and meaning ‘to praise.’
Translation:
Immediately (also in 4.39; 5.13, 25; 6.49; 8.44, 47; 13.13; 14.5; 18.43; 19.11; 22.60), or, ‘at the very moment,’ ‘right then.’ Since the word introduces an event that coincides with another event, or follows it after only a very short interval, the word may also be rendered by a phrase such as, ‘while he did so…,’ ‘as soon as he had done this….’
His mouth was opened and his tongue loosed. In some languages the zeugma of the Greek (i.e. the use of one verb with two subjects in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense) can be preserved, cf. ‘the tie which had bound the mouth and tongue having become loose’ (Tamil), ‘his mouth and tongue were-loosed/opened/untied’ (Kituba, similarly in Javanese); since this figure of style is more or less artificial the use of a rendering that is not entirely natural in the receptor language may be considered. But even so it may prove impossible to find one verb that can do duty with both subjects; hence the addition of a second verb (cf. Exegesis), e.g. ‘lived’ (Sundanese), ‘became-relaxed’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘became flexible’ (Lahu, where mutes are considered to have ‘stiff tongues’). Some other adaptations may be needed, e.g. where a personal subject is preferable, hence ‘he could open his mouth…’; or where it must be made clear that the organs of speech, ‘mouth’ (or “lips”, New English Bible, Toraja-Sa’dan) and/or ‘tongue,’ refer metaphorically to the faculty of speech, cf. e.g. ‘the mouth of Zechariah opened, he could use his tongue to speak’ (Bible en français courant), “his voice and the use of his tongue were … restored” (An American Translation), ‘his tongue having straightened (an idiom used of a child that has learned to speak) he uttered-speech’ (Ekari); ‘his mouth came to him (a similar idiom), his tongue became loose’ (Kannada), ‘his tongue loosed’ (Sediq, rendering only the second metaphor which is idiomatically acceptable in the language, and shifting the reference to ‘mouth’ to the next clause, ‘his mouth spoke glorifying God,’ in order to preserve it in translation); or simply, ‘his dumbness was-removed/healed’ (Tboli), ‘he was able to speak again’ (Cuyono, cf. Good News Translation).
He spoke, blessing God. The implications discussed in Exegesis are brought out in, ‘his first words were to praise God’ (cf. Phillips), ‘as one having the power of speech, he praised God’ (Kannada). For to bless in the sense it is used here cf. on 1.42, sub (2).
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.