Exegesis:

dia ti luete ‘why are you untying it?,’ implying that this question is asked while they are untying the colt.

houtōs ereite hoti ‘you will speak thus,’ with hoti introducing direct speech.

ho kurios autou chreian echei ‘the Lord needs it.’ autou is placed before chreian on which it depends, as an objective genitive. For kurios cf. on 1.6 (3). For chreian echein cf. on 5.31.

Translation:

‘The Lord has need of it’. These words spoken by Jesus are a case of quotation on two levels. This somewhat intricate pattern requires careful handling in some languages, e.g. in Warao. — The Lord is used by the disciples as a reverent title for Jesus, but in the Gospel of Luke Jesus never explicitly and expressly declares himself to be the Lord. A specific problem arises in honorific languages, which usually do not allow a speaker to refer to himself with reverent terms, even if he does so in an utterance of which others are the presumed speakers. The translator may feel himself compelled, then, to use a rendering that is more or less contrary to the linguistic etiquette in the receptor language; or he may have to reword the passage in such a way that Jesus becomes the presumed speaker on the second level also, e.g. (in indirect discourse), .’.. say, that I, the one whom you call the Lord, have need of it,’ or (in direct discourse), .’.. give him this message from me, or, this is my message (to him), “I, whom people call the Lord, have need of it” .’ If the rendering of “the Lord” has to be a possessed form, on may say ‘our Lord’ (inclusive, if the owner is assumed to be one of Jesus’ adherents; or exclusive, if this is not the case, or if the inclusive would reveal too much of the owner’s relation with Jesus). — Has need of, or, ‘must use it,’ ‘wants to ride on it,’ ‘has business with it’ (Zarma), or with a shift, ‘it will serve for our Lord’ (Tzeltal).

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.