Mark 6:31

Come ye yourselves apart. The Twelve in particular were in need of relaxation and instruction. And even Jesus felt in need of respite from the throngs that pursued Him wherever He went and pressed upon Him from early dawn till late at night. The retirement of the disciples with Jesus to the vicinity of Bethsaida Julias and the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 are the only incidents in the life of Jesus between the baptism and the Triumphal Entry that are reported by all four gospel writers.

A desert place. That is, a lonely, solitary, or remote place (see on Matt. 3:1; Luke 1:80). The site chosen for this retreat from the busy highways of Galilee was in the vicinity of Bethsaida Julias (see Luke 9:10), at the northern end of the Lake of Galilee, east of the point where the Jordan enters the lake and thus within the territory of Herod Philip (see on Matt. 11:21). The little plain in which lies Bethsaida Julias is El Batiha, the traditional site of the feeding of the five thousand.

Rest a while. Whatever a person’s occupation, occasional change not only brings relaxation but imparts new vigor.

So much as to eat. As had been the case several months earlier (see ch. 3:20).