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.