Mark 8:2

2 "My heart yearns over the people," He said; "for this is now the third day they have remained with me, and they 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 About that time there was again an immense crowd, and they found themselves with nothing to eat. So He called His disciples to Him.

2 "My heart yearns over the people," He said; "for this is now the third day they have remained with me, and they have nothing to eat.

3 If I were to send them home hungry, they would faint on the way, some of them having come a great distance."

4 "Where can we possibly get bread here in this remote place to satisfy such a crowd?" answered His disciples.

5 "How many loaves have you?" He asked. "Seven," they said.