(33) The verse is obviously intended to stand in contrast with that which follows. The "multitude" gave free expression to their natural wonder, which, though it did not actually amount to faith, was yet one step towards it. The Pharisees stood aloof, not denying the facts, but having their own solution of them.

Verse 33. - And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. In Matthew 12:23 they have advanced a stage further, and suggest that Jesus is Messiah (" the Son of David;" cf. supra, ver. 27).

9:32-34 Of the two, better a dumb devil than a blaspheming one. Christ's cures strike at the root, and remove the effect by taking away the cause; they open the lips, by breaking Satan's power in the soul. Nothing can convince those who are under the power of pride. They will believe anything, however false or absurd, rather than the Holy Scriptures; thus they show the enmity of their hearts against a holy God.And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake,.... The cause of his dumbness being removed, the effect ceased, and the man spake as he did before, and as other men do; and this was done, according to the Persic version, "as soon as Christ saw him"; the devil not being able to bear his presence, much less withstand his power: but as soon as Christ had set his eyes upon the man possessed by him, and had given him orders to be gone, he immediately went out, and the man was restored to his speech again;

and the multitude marvelled, saying, it was never so seen in Israel. The vast crowds of people, who were alarmed with the former miracles of Christ, and came along with the friends of the dumb man, when they heard him speak so suddenly and plainly, and with so much freedom, nothing being said or done to him, were surprised; and declared very frankly, that though many wonderful things had been done in Israel, in times past, by Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and others, yet never were such things seen, or heard, or known of, as were done by Christ: referring not to this miracle only, but to all the rest he had just wrought; as curing the woman of her bloody issue, raising Jairus's daughter from the dead, restoring sight to the two blind men, and now casting out a dumb devil.