And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.
Ver. 37. They did all eat and were filled] They did eat to satiety, as men use to do at feasts, where the tables seem to sweat with variety. The Greek word here is, in its proper signification, used of fatting cattle, that have grass up to the eyes, such as is that in some parts of Ireland, where they are forced to drive out their cattle sometimes from the pastures into the commons, lest they should surfeit and spoil themselves. a
Seven baskets full] These baskets were bigger and of larger capacity than those coffins, Matthew 14:20. We read of Paul let down by the wall in a basket, Acts 9:25. b It was such a vessel then that a man might sit in it: as the former may seem to have been no larger than a pie or pasty, the outside whereof, from the Greeks, we call a coffin.
a εχορτασθησαν. Hoc propric dicitur de armentis. Nam χορτον Graeci vocant gramen aut pabulum. Beza.
b κοφινος, σπυρις, sporta.