Mark 8:2

2 "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat;

Mark 8:2 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 8:2

I have compassion on the multitude
Christ is a compassionate Saviour both of the bodies and souls of men: he had compassion on the souls of this multitude, and therefore had been teaching them sound doctrine and he had compassion on the bodies of many of them, and had healed them of their diseases; and his bowels yearned towards them all;

because,
says he,

they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat;
for if they brought any food with them, it was all spent, and they were in a wilderness, where nothing was to be got; where they had no house to go into, nor bed to lie upon, and no provisions to be bought; and in this case they had been two nights and three days; which showed great affection and zeal in these people, and a close attachment to Christ, in exposing themselves to all these difficulties and hardships, which they seemed to bear with much patience and unconcernedness. The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions prefix the word "behold" to this clause, as expressing admiration at their stay with him so long in such a place.

Mark 8:2 In-Context

1 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him, and said to them,

2 "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat;

3 and if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come a long way."

4 And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these men with bread here in the desert?"

5 And he asked them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven."