23 David was told, “The P’lishtim are fighting Ke‘ilah and plundering the threshing-floors.” ² David consulted Adonai, asking, “Should I go and attack these P’lishtim?” Adonai answered David, “Go, and attack the P’lishtim, and save Ke‘ilah.” ³ David’s men said to him, “Look, we’re already afraid here in Y’hudah. How much more, then, if we go to Ke‘ilah to fight the armies of the P’lishtim!” ⁴ David consulted Adonai again; and Adonai answered him, “Set out, and go down to Ke‘ilah, because I will hand the P’lishtim over to you.” ⁵ David and his men went to Ke‘ilah and fought the P’lishtim. They defeated them in a great slaughter and led away their livestock. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Ke‘ilah.

⁶ When Avyatar the son of Achimelekh fled to David in Ke‘ilah, he had brought a ritual vest with him. ⁷ Now Sha’ul, on being informed that David had gone to Ke‘ilah, had said, “God has put him into my hands. He’s trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars.” ⁸ So Sha’ul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Ke‘ilah and besiege David and his men. ⁹ David knew that Sha’ul was plotting something against him, so he told Avyatar the cohen, “Bring the ritual vest here.” ¹⁰ Then David said, “Adonai God of Isra’el, your servant has certainly heard that Sha’ul intends to come to Ke‘ilah and destroy the city just to get me. ¹¹ Will the men of Ke‘ilah turn me over to him? Will Sha’ul come down, as your servant has heard? Adonai God of Isra’el, please tell your servant!” Adonai said, “He will come down.” ¹² Then David asked, “Will the men of Ke‘ilah hand me and my men over to Sha’ul?” Adonai said, “They will hand you over.” ¹³ So David and his men, now around six hundred, got up, left Ke‘ilah and went wherever they could. It was told Sha’ul that David had escaped from Ke‘ilah, so he called off the expedition. ¹⁴ David stayed in the desert strongholds, remaining in the hills of the Zif Desert. Sha’ul kept trying to find him, but God did not hand him over to him.

¹⁵ David saw that Sha’ul had mounted another expedition to seek his life. David was then at Horesh in the Zif Desert. ¹⁶ Y’honatan Sha’ul’s son set out and went to David at Horesh to encourage him in God. ¹⁷ He said to him, “Don’t be afraid, because my father’s forces will not find you; you will be king over Isra’el, and I will be second to you. Sha’ul my father knows this, too.” ¹⁸ Then the two of them made a covenant in the presence of Adonai, after which David stayed at Horesh and Y’honatan returned home.

¹⁹ The people of Zif came to Sha’ul in Giv‘ah and said, “David is hiding himself with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on Hakhilah Hill, south of Yeshimon. ²⁰ So now, king, since you’ve wanted so much to come down, come down! Our part will be to turn him over to you.” ²¹ Sha’ul said, “May Adonai bless you for showing me compassion! ²² Please go and make still more certain exactly where he is and who has seen him there, because I’ve been told that he’s very tricky. ²³ So look closely, find out where all his hiding-places are, and come back when you’re sure. Then I will go with you, and if he is there in that territory, I’ll search till I find him among all the thousands of Y’hudah.”

²⁴ They set out and went to Zif before Sha’ul. But David and his men had gone on to the Ma‘on Desert, in the ‘Aravah south of Yeshimon. ²⁵ Sha’ul and his men went searching for him. David was told, so he came down to the rock and stayed in the Ma‘on Desert. When Sha’ul heard that, he pursued David in the Ma‘on Desert. ²⁶ Sha’ul went along one side of the mountain, while David and his men went along the other. David was hurrying to get away from Sha’ul, while Sha’ul and his men were trying to surround David and his men in order to capture them. ²⁷ But then a messenger came to Sha’ul, saying, “Hurry, come, because the P’lishtim are invading the country!” ²⁸ So Sha’ul stopped chasing David and went to fight the P’lishtim. Therefore they called that place Sela-Hamachlekot [rock of divisions].

⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, a crowd of people arrived, with the man called Y’hudah (one of the Twelve!) leading them. He came up to Yeshua to kiss him, ⁴⁸ but Yeshua said to him, “Y’hudah, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” ⁴⁹ When his followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we use our swords?” ⁵⁰ One of them struck at the slave of the cohen hagadol and cut off his right ear. ⁵¹ But Yeshua answered, “Just let me do this,” and, touching the man’s ear, he healed him.

⁵² Then Yeshua said to the head cohanim, the officers of the Temple guard and the elders who had come to seize him, “So you came out just as you would to the leader of a rebellion, with swords and clubs? ⁵³ Every day I was there with you in the Temple court, yet you didn’t arrest me. But this is your hour — the hour when darkness rules.”

⁵⁴ Having seized him, they led him away and brought him into the house of the cohen hagadol. Kefa followed at a distance; ⁵⁵ but when they had lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Kefa joined them. ⁵⁶ One of the servant girls saw him sitting in the light of the fire, stared at him and said, “This man also was with him.” ⁵⁷ But he denied it: “Lady, I don’t even know him.” ⁵⁸ A little later, someone else saw him and said, “You’re one of them too”; but Kefa said, “Man, I am not!” ⁵⁹ About an hour later, another man asserted emphatically, “There can be no doubt that this fellow was with him, because he too is from the Galil!” ⁶⁰ But Kefa said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” And instantly, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. ⁶¹ The Lord turned and looked straight at Kefa; and Kefa remembered what the Lord had said, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” ⁶² And he went outside and cried bitterly.

⁶³ Meanwhile, the men who were holding Yeshua made fun of him. They beat him, ⁶⁴ blindfolded him, and kept asking him, “Now, ‘prophesy’! Who hit you that time?” ⁶⁵ And they said many other insulting things to him.

⁶⁶ At daybreak, the people’s council of elders, including both head cohanim and Torah-teachers, met and led him off to their Sanhedrin, ⁶⁷ where they said, “If you are the Mashiach, tell us.” He answered, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me; ⁶⁸ and if I ask you, you won’t answer. ⁶⁹ But from now on, the Son of Man will be sitting at the right hand of HaG’vurah,”^{[a] 70} They all said, “Does this mean, then, that you are the Son of God?” And he answered them, “You say I am.” ⁷¹ They said, “Why do we need additional testimony? We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth!”