And he called them unto him,.... The Jerusalem Scribes, to come nearer to him, and attend to what he had to say in defence of his character and miracles:and said unto them in parables: similitudes, and proverbial expressions, as the following seem to be,how can Satan cast out Satan?
or one devil cast out another? how unreasonable is it to suppose it? can it ever be thought that such, whose interest it is to unite, would ever oppose and dispossess one another? if therefore, as if he should say, I am Beelzebub, or have him, and he is in me, and I am in confederacy with him; was this the case, can any think I should ever cast him out of others, as I do?