John 7:19,20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Did not Moses give you the law As if he had said, But you are unrighteous; for you violate the very law for which you profess so much zeal. There is a remarkable beauty in this sudden turn of the sentiment. Some of the Jews called Jesus a false prophet: because on the sabbath day he had healed the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, (John 5:9,) pretending that it was a gross violation of the law of Moses, such as no good man, far less a prophet, would be guilty of. In answer to these evil surmises, he told them plainly, that however much they pretended to reverence the authority of Moses in his law, they made no scruple to violate the most sacred of his precepts; having entered into a resolution of murdering him, directly contrary to every Law of God and man; and being now employed in laying secret plots against his life: a reproof this, which came in with singular propriety and force, immediately after Jesus had, by the most convincing arguments, proved his mission from God. The people answered, Thou hast a devil Either thou art mad, or thou art actuated by the malice of the devil, or by a lying spirit; who goeth about to kill thee? Probably these, who spake thus, came from distant parts of the country, and did not know the design of the priests and rulers.