John Gill Commentary John 9:8

"The neighbors therefore, and they that saw him aforetime, that he was a beggar, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?" — John 9:8 (ASV)

The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen
him
For it seems the blind man was not a stranger, one that came out of the country to the city to beg; but a native of Jerusalem, that had long lived in a certain neighbourhood in it, and was well known to be what he was;

that he was blind ;
the Alexandrian copy, and one of Beza's exemplars, and the Vulgate Latin version read, "that he was a beggar"; to which agree the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions: wherefore they

said, is this not he that sat and begged ?
they particularly remark his begging posture; he was not laid all along, as the lame man in (Acts 3:2) ; nor did he go from door to door, as others were used to do, but he sat in some certain place, as blind men generally did; see (Matthew 20:30) .