They had no answer to his argument, so they attacked the man. Barnes puts it plainly: "When people have no arguments, they attempt to supply their place by revilings." "Born in sins" pointed to his blindness. Barnes explains it as meaning "thou wast born in a state of blindness a state which proved that either thou or thy parents had sinned." The second half, "dost thou teach us?", scorns the idea that a former beggar could instruct the leaders of Israel. Gill credits the man's answers to God, who "gave him a mouth and wisdom which these learned doctors could not resist."

"And they cast him out" (John 9:34). No reply from the man is recorded. Barnes reads the phrase as "Out of the synagogue. They excommunicated him," the very penalty his parents had feared (John 9:22). Then "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him," He asked, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" (John 9:35). The man answered, "Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him" (John 9:38).

Many assumed that being born blind proved sin. The disciples asked the same thing at the start of the chapter: "who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2). Jesus answered, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents" (John 9:3). "Cast him out" translates exebalon, from ekballo, "to cast out." Gill sees in this a partial fulfillment of Isaiah 66:5: "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified."

The leaders accused the man of being born in sin, but Jesus had already set that idea aside (John 9:3). The chapter ends by turning the charge around. When the Pharisees asked, "Are we blind also?", Jesus said, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9:40-41).

The man lost his place in the synagogue, but he was not lost to Jesus. The One the leaders rejected went looking for the man they rejected (John 9:35). Being cast out by people became the doorway to meeting Christ face to face.