to fall back · verb — second aorist active infinitive
on
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
ground
γῆνgēn
G1093
soil · noun — accusative singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Mark 6:39-40 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.
Luke 9:14-16 For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.
John 6:10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
Matthew 14:19-21 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Matthew 15:29–end
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. We read not of any thing he did in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, but the casting of the devil out of the woman of Canaan's daughter, as if he took that journey on purpose, with that in prospect. Let not ministers grudge their pains to do good, though but to few. He that knows the worth of souls, would go a great way to help to save one from death and Satan's pow…
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me--(Also see on Mar 7:26.)
Next: Matthew Chapter 16
John Gill on Matthew 15:35
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.
John Calvin on Matthew 15:29–end
Matthew 15:29-39
Matthew 15:29-39
Mark 7:31-37
29. And Jesus departing thence, came near the sea of Galilee, and he went up into the mountain, and sat down there. 30. And great multitudes came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and laid them at the feet of Jesus; and he cured them: 31. So that the multitudes wondered, when they perceived the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel. 32. And Jesus, having called his disciples to him, said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now remained with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and I do not choose…
The Church Fathers
The multitudes sit down on the ground; for before they had not reposed on the works of the Law, but they had supported themselves on their own sins, as men standing on their feet.
Now all the rest He doth as on the former occasion; thus He both makes them sit down on the ground, and He makes the loaves multiply themselves in the hands of the disciples. For, "He commanded," it is said, "the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves, and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude."
Be attentive to the difference between those things that are written in the various places in regard to the loaves. I think that this passage belongs to a different order than the others. Note the differences. Those were fed on a mountain, these in a desert place. These were fed after they had continued three days with Jesus, but those one day, on the evening of which they were fed. Is there an implication that those to whom Jesus shows kindness are superior when he fed them on the spot to demonstrate his kindness? And according to John, the twelve baskets contained leftovers of barley loaves, but nothing of this kind is said here. Is one preferred to another? In the one case he healed the sick, but in this case he is healing, along with the multitudes, those who are blind, lame, deaf and maimed. Note that the four thousand marveled, but no such thing is said about the sick. And I think we can distinguish those who ate of the seven loaves, for which thanks were given, from those who ate of the five loaves, which were blessed. These who ate the few little fishes are distinguished from those who ate of the two. Those who sat down upon the ground are distinguished from those who sat down on the grass. Note that those from fewer loaves left twelve baskets, but these from a greater number left seven baskets. Perhaps they were able more fully to receive.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Zabulon — (Matt. 4:13, 15; Rev. 7:8). See ZEBULUN.
Bread · Multitudes miraculously fed by Christ with — Multitudes miraculously fed by Christ with
Loaves · Miracle of the seven — Miracle of the seven
Miracles Of Christ, The · The multitude fed — The multitude fed
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The previous feeding miracle (see 14:13-21) was for Jews, whereas this one extended to Gentiles; it thus develops the theme of 15:27. Through this miracle Jesus demonstrated that he is the true bread of life (see 16:5-12; John 6).