They need not go away is rendered in more natural English in Good News Translation: “They don’t have to leave.” Other possibilities include “It is not necessary for them to leave” and “They can stay here.”

In Greek the pronoun you is emphatic. Some translators try to show this by saying “It is for you to give them something to eat” or “You yourselves give them some food.”

Something to eat is not the same form which Mark uses in 6.36 (see verse 15); it is literally “to eat” (an infinitive which is not accompanied by an object), but an object will be required in most translations. “Some food” or “some food to eat” are common renderings.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .