Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?”

“began to go away” is in the continuous tense. Morris says this “gives the thought of something like a procession.”

Why did the elder ones go out first? There are two possible reasons: either because they had lived longer and therefore had committed more sins and were thus more guilty than the younger ones, or because they were the first to become aware of their sins.

Jesus had turned the tables on them. As Dods points out, “They are summoned to judge themselves rather than the woman.” The sad thing is that they came under conviction and then left. They could have stayed, repented of their sins, and received forgiveness, but it would have brought them shame by openly confessing their sin, and that is something the proud find difficult to do. An example is Saul in (1 Sam 15:30). We should always be more anxious to save our souls than save our reputations. When you find yourself under conviction there are 3 “don’ts” to keep away from: don’t avoid the shame of confessing, don’t ignore the conviction in the hope it will go away, and don’t walk away from Jesus. These men did all three and remained “white-washed tombs” (Mat 23:27-28).

1 Sam 15:30  Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honour me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.”

Mat 23:27-28  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.