The Pulpit Commentary on Matthew 14:21

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. Only Matthew mentions the presence of other than men. We may assume that no great number of women and children were there; and this, considering the distance that most had been obliged to go (verse 13), is what we should expect.

"Observe here the diminutive παιδίων, little children, whom their mothers either carried in their arms or led by the hand" (Meyer).

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