Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 15:38

"And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides women and children." — Matthew 15:38 (ASV)

And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.

Now, if the women and children bore the same proportion to the men as they generally do in our congregation, there must have been a very large crowd indeed.

Why is the number of the women and children not mentioned? Was it because there were so many? Or was it because, their appetites being smaller than the appetites of men, the men are put down as the great eaters, and the women and children, as it were, thrown into the count?

What a mercy it is that the Lord adds to the church daily a vast number of men, women, and children! The Lord sends us many more, until we cannot count them!

There is no desire here to inflate the number or to make the wonder greater. In some religious statistics, the tally would be quickly made if the women and children were excluded, as they are the bulk of the attendants. In the Bible, people were counted by the number of males, and Matthew, when he collected taxes, was accustomed to levy them in this way. That plan is followed here.

There is no reason why women and children should be omitted from our enumerations nowadays, since the whole method of census-taking has been altered, and both sexes are now included. As the men were the greatest eaters and the most conspicuous persons, they are counted; and though the rest of the guests were not numbered, they were all nourished, which is the main matter.