Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Were filled (exortasqhsan). Effective aorist passive indicative of xortazw. See Matthew 5:6. From the substantive xortov grass. Cattle were filled with grass and people usually with other food. They all were satisfied.
Broken pieces (twn klasmatwn). Not the scraps upon the ground, but the pieces broken by Jesus and still in the "twelve baskets" (dwdeka kofinouv) and not eaten. Each of the twelve had a basketful left over (to perisseuon). One hopes that the boy (John 6:9) who had the five loaves and two fishes to start with got one of the basketsful, if not all of them. Each of the Gospels uses the same word here for baskets (kofinov), a wicker-basket, called "coffins" by Wycliff. Juvenal (Sat. iii. 14) says that the grove of Numa near the Capenian gate of Rome was "let out to Jews whose furniture is a basket (cophinus) and some hay" (for a bed). In the feeding of the Four Thousand (Matthew and Mark) the word sfuriv is used which was a sort of hamper or large provisions basket.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Matthew 14:20:
Matthew 15:33
Matthew 16:8
Mark 6:41
Luke 9:12
Luke 9:17
John 6:1
John 6:13
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