They began to accuse him, saying, *We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Messiah, a king.*
For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, [say] all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
Then the princes said to the king, Let this man, we pray you, be put to death; because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man doesn't seek the welfare of this people, but the hurt.
Then Amatzyah the Kohen of Beit-El sent to Yarov`am king of Yisra'el, saying, *`Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Yisra'el. The land is not able to bear all his words.
But, lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater coin. Take that, and give it to them for me and you.*
and said to them, *You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and see, I have examined him before you, and found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.
At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Judeans cried out, saying, *If you release this man, you aren't Caesar's friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!*
For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Natzerim.