The people ran together. — Better, perhaps, there was a rush of the people. St. Luke brings into something like a mental juxtaposition the pictures of the tumult at Ephesus and that at Jerusalem. The Jews of Asia, among whom we may perhaps think of Alexander the coppersmith, working then as afterwards “much evil” against the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:14), may have taken part in both.
Forthwith the doors were shut. — This was obviously the act of the Levite gate-keepers. The Apostle was dragged out, the crowd followed him, and they seized the opportunity to guard the sacred precincts against further profanation.