diff --git a/src/ex_docmd.c b/src/ex_docmd.c
index 93f33ae..4755a01 100644
--- a/src/ex_docmd.c
+++ b/src/ex_docmd.c
@@ -1729,7 +1729,14 @@
 
 #ifdef FEAT_EVAL
     if (current_sctx.sc_version == SCRIPT_VERSION_VIM9 && !starts_with_colon)
+    {
+	if (ea.cmd > cmd)
+	{
+	    emsg(_(e_colon_required));
+	    goto doend;
+	}
 	p = find_ex_command(&ea, NULL, lookup_scriptvar, NULL);
+    }
     else
 #endif
 	p = find_ex_command(&ea, NULL, NULL, NULL);
@@ -3446,7 +3453,7 @@
  * Backslashed delimiters after / or ? will be skipped, and commands will
  * not be expanded between /'s and ?'s or after "'".
  *
- * Also skip white space and ":" characters.
+ * Also skip white space and ":" characters after the range.
  * Returns the "cmd" pointer advanced to beyond the range.
  */
     char_u *