They had wondered whether Jesus would go to the Jews scattered among the Gentiles (John 7:35), but that did not explain His words. So they repeated His saying word for word and asked what it could mean. Gill notes that the saying was not easy for them to understand. The question shows their confusion, but it is asked of each other, not of Jesus.

No answer is recorded. Barnes says Jesus "chose to turn off their minds from a speculation about the place to which he was going, to the great affairs of their own personal salvation." His next recorded words were an invitation on the last great day of the feast: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37). Later He said again, "whither I go, ye cannot come," and the Jews were still puzzled: "Will he kill himself?" (John 8:21-22).

Barnes says Jesus' words "Yet a little while am I with you" (John 7:33) are supposed to have been spoken "about six months before his death." The Feast of Tabernacles was a yearly feast in Jerusalem (John 7:2), and the Passover at which He died came months later.

Commentators read "ye shall seek me, and shall not find me" in different ways. Barnes takes it, probably, of the nation: they would long for the Messiah to save the city and nation from the Romans, "yet they would not be able to obtain it." Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary takes it more personally: "sinners, when in misery, will be glad of the help they now despise." Both agree the words were a warning, not a riddle for its own sake.

Jesus had already told them where He was going: "unto him that sent me" (John 7:33). The saying would be explained by events. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary says, "Men dispute about such sayings, but the event will explain them." John himself notes that "Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). His death, resurrection, and return to the Father would make His words plain.

The same kind of question comes up again with His disciples: "What is this that he saith, A little while?" (John 16:18). The difference is what happens next. Jesus "knew that they were desirous to ask him" (John 16:19), and He told them plainly, "I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John 16:28). The crowd in John 7 asked one another and stayed confused. The disciples wanted to ask Him, and He explained.