John 6:10

10 Jesus said, "Make the people recline." (Now [there] was a lot of grass in the place.) So the men reclined, approximately five thousand [in] number.

John 6:10 Meaning and Commentary

John 6:10

Jesus said, make the men sit down
The Syriac version reads, "all the men"; and the Persic version, "all the people"; men, women, and children: Christ, without reproving his disciples for their unbelief, ordered them directly to place the people upon the ground, and seat them in rows by hundreds and by fifties, in a rank and company, as persons about to take a meal:

now there was much grass in the place;
at the bottom of the mountain; and it was green, as one of the evangelists observes, it being the spring of the year, and was very commodious to sit down upon:

so the men sat down, in number about five thousand;
besides women and children, ( Matthew 14:21 ) , so that there was but one loaf for more than a thousand persons.

John 6:10 In-Context

8 One of his disciples, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

9 "Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many [people]?"

10 Jesus said, "Make the people recline." (Now [there] was a lot of grass in the place.) So the men reclined, approximately five thousand [in] number.

11 Then Jesus took the bread, and [after he] had given thanks, he distributed [it] to those who were reclining--likewise also of the fish, as much as they wanted.

12 And when they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, "Gather the remaining fragments so that nothing is lost."