And they that did eat, were four thousand men
This number of men, as well as of the baskets of fragments, clearly shows this to be a distinct miracle from the former of this kind, recorded in ( Matthew 14:15-21 ) . There the number of men were five thousand, here four thousand; there the quantity of food was five loaves and two fishes, here seven loaves and a few fishes; there the number of the baskets of fragments was twelve, here seven; though the quantity might be as large; since the word here used for a basket is not the same as there, and designs one of a larger size:
besides women and children;
who were not taken into the account, though they ate as well as the men, and whose number might be very large.