And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Ver. 9. Convicted by their own conscience] Which is God's spy and man's overseer, index, iudex, vindex: a sign, a judge a defender, so that sinners are self-condemned αυτοκατακριτοι, and often betrayed by their own blushing and heart beating, when yet the offence is secret. Yea, a man feels an inward shame in his own heart, disgracing and abusing him, though he make no outward show of it. For albeit an innocent person, upon the foulness of an aspersion, may conceive shame, as did David, Psalms 44:15, yet it is usually the effect of an ill conscience.