Matthew 14:21

21 Those eating numbered about five thousand men, plus women and children.

Matthew 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 14:21

And they that had eaten were about five thousand men,
&c.] The word "about", is omitted in the Vulgate Latin, in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and in the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, which expressly say there were so many. A large number indeed, to be fed with five loaves and two fishes!

besides women and children;
who were not taken into the account, though they all ate, and were filled, it not being usual with the Jews to number their women; and who might be near as large a number as the men: for generally there is a very great concourse of the female sex, and of children, where anything extraordinary, or out of the way, is to be seen or heard; and of this sort was a large number of Christ's audience, who only came out of curiosity, or for one sinister end or another.

Matthew 14:21 In-Context

19 After instructing the crowds to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking up toward heaven, made a b'rakhah. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the talmidim, who gave them to the crowds.

20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and they took up twelve baskets full of the pieces left over.

21 Those eating numbered about five thousand men, plus women and children.

22 Immediately he had the talmidim get in the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the crowds away.

23 After he had sent the crowds away, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night came on, and he was there alone.