1
Three days after Festus had entered the province, he went up from Caesarea to Yerushalayim.
2
There the head cohanim and the Judean leaders informed him of the case against Sha'ul, and they asked him
3
to do them the favor of having the man sent to Yerushalayim. (They had plotted to have him ambushed and killed en route.)
4
Festus replied that Sha'ul was being kept under guard in Caesarea, and that he was about to go there shortly himself.
5
"So," he said, "let competent men among you come down with me and press charges against the man, if he has done something wrong."
6
After staying with them at most eight or ten days, Festus went down to Caesarea; and on the following day, he took his seat in court and ordered Sha'ul to be brought in.
7
When he arrived, the Judeans who had come down from Yerushalayim stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him which they could not prove.
8
In reply, Sha'ul said, "I have committed no offense - not against the Torah to which the Jews hold, not against the Temple, and not against the Emperor."
9
But Festus, wanting to do the Judeans a favor, asked Sha'ul, "Would you be willing to go up to Yerushalayim and be tried before me there on these charges?"