Acts 25:3

And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:1-12 See how restless malice is. Persecutors deem it a peculiar favour to have their malice gratified. Preaching Christ, the end of the law, was no offence against the law. In suffering times the prudence of the Lord's people is tried, as well as their patience; they need wisdom. It becomes those who are innocent, to insist upon their innocence. Paul was willing to abide by the rules of the law, and to let that take its course. If he deserved death, he would accept the punishment. But if none of the things whereof they accused him were true, no man could deliver him unto them, with justice. Paul is neither released nor condemned. It is an instance of the slow steps which Providence takes; by which we are often made ashamed, both of our hopes and of our fears, and are kept waiting on God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And desired favour against him - Desired the favor of Festus, that they might accomplish their wicked purpose on Paul.

Would send for him to Jerusalem - Probably under a pretence that he might be tried by the Sanhedrin; or perhaps they wished Festus to hear the cause there, and to decide it while he was at Jerusalem. Their real motive is immediately stated.

Laying wait in the way to kill him - That is, they would lie in wait, or they would employ a band of Sicarii, or assassins, to take his life on the journey. See the notes on Acts 21:38; Acts 23:12. It is altogether probable that if this request had been granted, Paul would have been killed. But God had promised him that he should bear witness to the truth at Rome Acts 23:11, and his providence was remarkable in thus influencing the mind of the Roman governor, and defeating the plans of the Jewish council.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. desired favour—in Ac 25:15, "judgment."

against him—It would seem that they had the insolence to ask him to have the prisoner executed even without a trial (Ac 25:16).

laying wait … to kill him—How deep must have been their hostility, when two years after the defeat of their former attempt, they thirst as keenly as ever for his blood! Their plea for having the case tried at Jerusalem, where the alleged offense took place, was plausible enough; but from Ac 25:10 it would seem that Festus had been made acquainted with their causeless malice, and that in some way which Paul was privy to.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Desired favour; though it seems to have been but justice, that they might be allowed to try Paul for such crimes as were within their cognizance; yet that they might the more easily obtain their desire, they beg it as a favour.

Laying wait in the way to kill him; which did worse become magistrates and priests than any men, to act thus against the law of nature, and to be sure also against the law of the land, to hire ruffians to assassinate Paul.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And desired favour against him,.... Paul; they asked what would be a favour to them, and a prejudice to him: or "of him", that is, of Festus; they asked a favour of him, and desired it as such, as what would be gratefully accepted and acknowledged by them; which sense is confirmed by the Syriac version; the Arabic version renders it "to", or "upon them"; that is, they asked him to grant a favour to them, or bestow one on them, which is as follows:

that he would send for him to Jerusalem; that his case might be heard before him, and he might be tried and judged by him, as they pretended:

laying wait in the way to kill him; this was their design, though they concealed it, and pretended no other view than that justice might take place: their scheme was, that if they could have prevailed upon Festus to have sent for Paul to Jerusalem, from Caesarea, they would have provided men, perhaps the same forty and upwards as before, in Acts 23:12 to have laid in wait for him in the way as he came, and to have killed him: the whole of this shows the malice of these men, the badness of their cause, the indefatigableness and diligence to attain their end, the danger the apostle was in, and the care of Providence over him.

Geneva Study Bible

And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 25:3. αἰτουμ., cf. Acts 25:15. “Postulantes gratiam non justitiam,” Corn à Lapide.—ἐνέδραν ποιοῦντες, not ποιήσοντες, they were making and contriving the ambush already (Alford): priests and elders were willing as before to avail themselves of the assassin.—κατὰ τὴν ὁδόν, cf. Luke 10:4, and three times in Acts 8:36; Acts 26:13, nowhere else in N. T. Syr. H. mg. adds a distinct reference to the forty conspirators previously mentioned, Acts 23:12, but Blass omits in [390] text—doubtless, as he says, there were many others ready for the deed at the service of the Sanhedrim.

[390] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. and desired favour against him] i.e. they begged that their case might have some special consideration. They were many and rich; the accused man was alone and an obscure person, and it was much easier to bring one man from Cæsarea, than for their whole body to undertake a journey from Jerusalem thither. No doubt too they hoped that with a new governor their influence and good position would not be without weight.

laying wait in the way to kill him] They still adhered to their plan of assassination, than which no crime was more common at this time in Judæa. Perhaps too those men who had bound themselves by a vow, though they had been forced to break it, yet felt dissatisfied that Paul was still alive.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 25:3. Εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ, to Jerusalem) where Festus already was.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Asking for and desired, A.V.; to kill him on the way for in the way to kill him, A.V. Asking favor, etc. The Jews evidently thought to take advantage of the inexperience of Festus, and of his natural desire to please them at his first start, to accomplish their murderous intentions against Paul. Acts 25:3

Vincent's Word Studies

Laying wait (ἐνέδραν ποιοῦντες)

Lit., making or arranging an ambush.