John 6:10

10 "Make the people sit down," Jesus told them. (There was a lot of grass there.) So all the people sat down; there were about five thousand men.

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 Another one of his disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter's brother, said,

9 "There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But they will certainly not be enough for all these people."

10 "Make the people sit down," Jesus told them. (There was a lot of grass there.) So all the people sat down; there were about five thousand men.

11 Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed it to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, and they all had as much as they wanted.

12 When they were all full, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces left over; let us not waste a bit."