Adam Clarke on Acts 21:30

They took Paul - They tumultuously seized on him; and drew him out of the temple, out of the court of the Israelites, where he was worshipping: and - the doors were shut; the doors of the court of the Gentiles, probably to prevent Paul from getting any succor from his friends in the city; for their whole proceedings show that they purposed to murder him: they brought him out of the court of the Israelites, that court being peculiarly holy, that it might not be defiled by his blood; and they shut the court of the Gentiles, that they might have the opportunity unmolested of killing him in that place; for the court of the Gentiles was reckoned to be less holy than that of the Israelites.