2 Timothy 4:16

At my first defense no one took my part, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their account.

Those who forsook Paul, as mentioned here, were guilty of a grievous sin against him; but there was a difference in their sin and that of Alexander. These loved the apostle, and through fear, failed to stand by him; but Alexander was an enemy of the truth; therefore, Paul breathed a prayer for these, whereas he consigned Alexander to the judgment of God. His was a sin against the truth.

At my first defense ... Many learned opinions are in disagreement about the occasion of this first defense. It has been variously understood as meaning Paul's appearance before the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:1-10), his appearance before Felix (Acts 24:1-23), his first appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:11,12), also as the defense which he made at his arraignment (preliminary trial) on the occasion of his last imprisonment, and which had taken place only shortly before the time of his letter to Timothy. The tenor of the passage seems to indicate that Paul spoke of something recent. Conybeare identified this with the preliminary trial of the final imprisonment, pointing out that it would have been held, "not before the emperor, but before the City Prefect, Urbi, which under Nero had superseded the older methods of Roman justice,"[24] and which was conducted in a biased and unfair manner. About the only difficulty that confronts this interpretation is the reference to Paul's deliverance in 2 Timothy 4:17.