Matthew 9:21 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

She said within herself. — The words indicate a faith real but not strong. She believed, as the leper did, in the power to heal, but did not trust the love, and shrank from the thought lest the Healer should shrink from her. And she thought not of a will that seeks to bless and save, but of a physical effluence passing from the body to the garments, and from the garments to the hand that touched them. Yet weak as the faith was, it was accepted, and outward things were endowed with a “virtue” which was not their own. So afterwards, where a like belief prevailed, the “handkerchiefs and aprons” that were brought from St. Paul’s flesh became means of healing (Acts 19:12).