Exegesis:

hina ploiarion proskarterē autō ‘that a boat be ready for him’: in this clause hina does not denote purpose ‘in order that’ but simply indicates the content of the order given the disciples.

ploiarion (only here in Mark) ‘a boat’: the diminutive of ploion (cf. 1.19) ‘boat.’ It is not necessary to suppose, however, that a very exact distinction between the two is made by the evangelist.

proskartereō (only here in Mark) ‘attend constantly,’ ‘wait on’: used here of a boat it means ‘stand ready, be in constant attendance’ (cf. Gould).

hina mē thlibōsin auton ‘in order that they not crush him’: here is the purpose (hina ‘in order that’) of the command that a boat be at hand.

thlibō (7.14) ‘press upon,’ ‘crowd,’ ‘crush’: ‘they’ refers to ho ochlos ‘the crowd’ of the preceding clause.

etherapeusen (cf. 1.34) ‘he healed’: American Standard Version and Revised Standard Version “had healed” is not to be understood in the sense that the healing ministry was finished; cf. “healed” of Moffatt, Translator’s New Testament (cf. Manson “made many cures”).

hōste epipiptein (cp. 1.27 for this construction) ‘so as to press upon’: the verb epipiptō (only here in Mark) means literally ‘to fall upon’ and is here used in the sense ‘to crowd upon,’ ‘to approach impetuously’ .

autou hapsōntai (cp. 1.41) ‘that they might touch him.’

hosoi eichon mastigas ‘as many as had diseases,’ ‘all who had diseases.’

mastix (5.29, 34) ‘whip,’ ‘scourge,’ ‘torment’: used of disease and suffering as divine chastisement. It is probable, however, that the word had lost its original sense of ‘scourge’ inflicted by the gods and meant simply ‘disease’ (cf. Lagrange). Cf. the similar use, in English, of the word ‘plague.’

Translation:

After the verb told it is quite frequent that the following order of Jesus must be stated in a direct form, e.g. ‘told his disciples: Have a boat ready for me because….’

To have a boat ready is not always an easy idea to translate literally. Some languages may speak of people being ‘ready’ (i.e. ‘prepared for action’) but inanimate objects such as boats cannot be spoken of as ‘ready.’ The closest equivalent in San Mateo del Mar Huave, for example, is to say ‘to have a boat tied (anchored) near by,’ Pamona and Javanese, ‘a little ship had to be close-by.’ On the other hand, one can usually speak of ‘preparing a boat for a person’ and this may be the best equivalent in some languages.

The two expressions (1) because of the crowd and (2) lest they should crush him are better coalesced into one clause in some languages since the logical subject is identical for each, e.g. ‘in order that the crowd would not push hard against him.’

The conjunction for introducing verse 10 may pose certain difficulties, since, if it is understood to suggest a reason for the immediately preceding action, there is a non sequitur, that is to say, people will not be able to understand why the people would crush him because he had healed so many. Actually, this conjunction introduces a reason, not for the immediately preceding action, but for the previous statement by Jesus, namely, that the disciples should keep a boat ready for him. In order, to make the relationship quite clear one may render the passage as ‘Jesus did this because he had healed many and as a result all who….’

Pressed upon him to touch him must be translated with care, for ‘to press upon’ may imply by its very form physical contact. Accordingly, readers may wonder why the phrase ‘to touch him’ should be added. However, the description of what was happening in this crowd can be readily described as ‘they kept pushing one another in order to touch him’ (Amganad Ifugao) or ‘kept shoving toward him in order to touch him’ (Tabasco Chontal).

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 .