Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do [so] again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no [more] on the sabbath.
Ver. 21. Why lodge ye about the wall?] His care was also lest God should be dishonoured in the suburbs. A little fire warms but a little way off, when a great one casteth about its heat far and near. He feared also lest those within the walls, seeing them, might be tempted to wish themselves with them; as when Sulla, the Roman, lay before the walls of Athens, the citizens' minds were with him, though their bodies were kept from him.
I will lay hands on you] I will lay you fast enough: be packing, therefore. The best way to be rid of sin is to threaten it, punish it, by the practice of mortification, to handle it roughly. We are not debtors to the flesh, Romans 8:12. We owe it nothing but stripes, nothing but the blue eye St Paul gave it, 1 Corinthians 9:27, υπωπιαζω .