It was possible his scheming, and labor, and expenditure of treasure might have been but blasphemous contention with God.

When he picked up the reins and said, "Let us go, brethren," all before him was uncertainty.

The faculty of resolving quickly, without which one cannot be a hero in the midst of stirring scenes, was numb within him.
"Let us go, brethren; let us to Golgotha." They passed through excited crowds of people going south, like themselves.

All the country north of the city seemed aroused and in motion.
Hearing that the procession with the condemned might be met with somewhere near the great white towers left by Herod, the three friends rode thither, passing round southeast of Akra.

In the valley below the Pool of Hezekiah, passage-way against the multitude became impossible, and they were compelled to dismount, and take shelter behind the corner of a house and wait.
The waiting was as if they were on a river bank, watching a flood go by, for such the people seemed.
There are certain chapters in the First Book of this story which were written to give the reader an idea of the composition of the Jewish nationality as it was in the time of Christ.