Great crowds came to him is somewhat picturesque in New English Bible and Barclay: “crowds flocked to him.” Crowds can be expressed as “many people.”

The lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb: in place of using adjectives as nouns as in Revised Standard Version, it may be preferable in many languages to do as Phillips has done: “people who were lame, blind, crippled, dumb.” Both Matthew and his readers would have understood the healing of so many people as a sign that the promised age of salvation had finally arrived (see Isa 35.5-6).

Lame is the same word used in 11.5 (see also 18.8; 21.14). Maimed (so also in verse 31; 18.8) is “crippled” in Good News Translation; the word may be used of anyone who has an arm or leg that is in any way abnormal and not capable of being used. Dumb (a word which may mean either “unable to speak” or “deaf”) was used previously in 9.32, 33; 11.5; 12.22.

And many others obviously means “and many other sick people” (Good News Translation). It can also be translated as “people with many other kinds of diseases.”

Put (Good News Translation “placed”) translates a verb which originally meant “throw,” signifying violence, a meaning which is obviously not intended in the context. To put them at his feet means to “place them in front of Jesus” or to “put them down by Jesus.”

It is important in the translation to keep clear who is being referred to by they and them. It was the great crowds of people who brought the sick people to Jesus and placed them at his feet.

Healed represents a different Greek verb than the verb in verse 28; however, there is no difference in meaning between them.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .