And He instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Here is, I. A general account of Christ's cures, his curing by wholesale. The tokens of Christ's power and goodness are neither scarce nor scanty; for there is in him an overflowing fulness. Now observe, 1. The place where these cures were wrought; it was near the sea of Galilee, a part of the country Christ was much conversant with.
Commenting on Matthew 15:29-39
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. Not regarding the smallness of the provisions, nor any further consulting with his disciples; but knowing his own power to increase this food, and determining to feed the multitude before he dismissed them, in an authoritative way ordered them to sit down upon the ground in rows, that they might be the better seen, and served.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. (k) Literally, "to lie down backwards", as rowers do in rowing, when they draw their oars to themselves.