For they were about five thousand men,.... Beside women and children, Mat 14:21, and he said to his disciples, make them to sit down by fifties in a company; and by hundreds also; some companies had a hundred apiece in them, and others fifty; and which was done partly, for the more easy numbering of them, and partly and chiefly for the more convenient distribution of food to them; See Gill on Mar 6:39. See Gill on Mar 6:40.