This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him - hoping, whatever He might answer, to put Him in the wrong: if He said, Stone her, that would seem a stepping out of His province; if He forbade it, that would hold Him up as a relaxer of the public morals. See now how these cunning hypocrites were overmatched.
But Jesus stooped down. It will be observed He was "sitting" when they came to Him (John 8:2).
And with his finger wrote on the ground. The words of our translators in Italics - "as though he heard them not" - have hardly improved the sense, for it is scarcely probable He could wish that to be thought. Rather He wished to show them His aversion to enter on the subject. But this did not suit them. They pressed for an answer.