When Jesus therefore perceived.... — St. John has told us of the effect of the sign on the multitude. He knows also the reason of Christ’s retirement, while St. Matthew and St. Mark only state the fact that He retired to pray. They knew not that He wished to avoid that throng of people who thought of the Messiah as a temporal king, and would have borne Him with them to the great feast at the royal city. St. Luke does not contain this section, but comp. the question recorded by him in John 9:18 et seq., which grows immediately out of it.
A mountain. — Better, the mountain, or the hill-country (John 6:3). He withdrew again to the place where He was before.