See this narrative explained in the notes at Matthew 14:13-21.
By ship - By a boat or a small vessel.
Privately - Without making their plan known. They intended to go privately. It appears, however, that their intention became known, and multitudes followed them.
Afoot thither - On foot to the place where they saw them going.
Out of all cities - All cities or large towns in the neighborhood.
Much people ...as sheep ... - They had no one to teach them and guide them. The priests and scribes were proud and corrupt; they despised the common people and neglected them.
The time is far passed - The day is almost gone. It is drawing near night.
Two hundred pennyworth of bread - About twenty-eight dollars, or 6 British pounds. See the notes at Matthew 14:16. As the disciples had a common purse in which they carried their little property, consisting of the donations of their friends and money to be given to the poor (compare John 12:6; Matthew 26:8-9; Luke 8:3), it is not improbable that they had at this time about this sum in their possession. Philip - for it was he who asked the question John 6:7 - asked, with a mixture of wonder and agitation, whether they should take all their little property and spend it on a single meal? And even if we should, said he, it would not be sufficient to satisfy such a multitude. It was implied in this that, in his view, they could not provide for them if they wished to, and that it would be better to send them away than to attempt it.
In ranks - Literally, in the form of square beds in a garden. By regularly formed companies.
By hundreds and by fifties - Some companies had a hundred in them, and some groupings had fifty in them. We do not need to suppose that these were “exactly” formed or arranged, but that this was approximately the number. The expression indicates a “multitude.” There were so many that they sat down, by “hundreds” and by “fifties,” in separate companies, upon the green grass.
twelve baskets - Baskets belonging to the disciples, in which they carried their provisions, or, perhaps, belonging to some of the multitude.
Fragments - Broken pieces of the bread that remained.