They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
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 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 Mat 14:15. 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...
They did all eat, not a crumb or a bit, but to fulness and satisfaction; yet seven baskets remain; answering the number of the loaves, as the twelve baskets in the former miracle answered to the twelve apostles: in both, more is left than was at first set on: it is hard to say, which was the greater miracle, the miraculous eating, or miraculous leaving.