Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 21:30

"And all the city was moved, and the people ran together; and they laid hold on Paul, and dragged him out of the temple: and straightway the doors were shut." — Acts 21:30 (ASV)

The people ran together.—Better, perhaps, there was a rush of the people. Saint Luke brings into a kind of mental juxtaposition the pictures of the tumult at Ephesus and that at Jerusalem. The Jews of Asia, among whom we may perhaps think of Alexander the coppersmith, working then, as also afterwards, much evil against the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:14), may have taken part in both.

Forthwith the doors were shut.—This was obviously the act of the Levite gate-keepers. The Apostle was dragged out, the crowd followed him, and they seized the opportunity to guard the sacred precincts against further profanation.