Text:

apo ‘from’ is omitted by Textus Receptus, but included in all modern editions of the Greek text.

Instead of eisin ‘they are’ read by Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Kilpatrick, and Lagrange, hēkasin ‘they have come’ is preferred by Tischendorf, Soden, Souter, Merk, and Taylor; Textus Receptus and Vogels have hēkousi ‘they are come.’

Exegesis:

apolusō (cf. 6.36) ‘I should send away,’ ‘I should dismiss.’

nēsteis (only here in Mark) ‘hungry,’ ‘unfed,’ ‘without eating.’

eis oikon autōn (cf. 2.11; 5.19; 7.30) ‘to their homes.’

ekluthēsontai (only here in Mark) ‘they shall become weary,’ ‘they shall faint,’ ‘they shall give out.’

en tē hodō ‘in the road’: i.e. ‘on the way,’ ‘as they go (home).’

apo makrothen (cf. 5.6) ‘from afar,’ ‘from a distance.’

(If hēkasin ‘they have come’ is read – see above – it occurs only here in Mark, and means ‘be present,’ ‘have come’).

Translation:

Send them away hungry to their homes may require some realignment of constituent parts, e.g. ‘send them to their homes without their having eaten anything’ or ‘send them to their homes while they are still hungry.’

Faint on the way may be ‘collapse along the trail.’

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 .