The Daily Audio Bible

Moses counts the people again^[a]

26 When the bad disease stopped killing people, the Lord spoke to Moses and to Eleazar, the son of Aaron. ² He said, ‘Count all the Israelites, clan by clan. Count all the men who are 20 years old or older. Count only those men who can fight in the army.’ ³ So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke to the Israelites. Their camp was on the flat ground of Moab, beside the Jordan River. Jericho was on the other side of the river. They said, ⁴ ‘Count all the men who are 20 years old or older. The Lord has told Moses that we must do that.’

These are the names of the Israelites who came out of Egypt:

⁵ The tribe of Reuben, Jacob's firstborn son had these clans: Hanoch's family, Pallu's family, ⁶ Hezron's family and Carmi's family. ⁷ There were 43,730 men in the clans of the tribe of Reuben.

⁸ Pallu's descendant was Eliab. ⁹ Eliab's descendants were Nemuel, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram were the men who turned against Moses and Aaron. Korah was their leader and they all turned against the Lord. ¹⁰ A hole opened in the ground. Korah, Dathan, Abiram and their families fell into the hole and they died. And fire killed 250 other men. So they became a sign to warn the other Israelites. ¹¹ But Korah's clan did not all die at that time.

¹² The tribe of Simeon had these clans: Nemuel's family, Jamin's family, Jakin's family, ¹³ Zerah's family and Shaul's family. ¹⁴ There were 22,200 men in the clans of the tribe of Simeon.

¹⁵ The tribe of Gad had these clans: Zephon's family, Haggi's family, Shuni's family, ¹⁶ Ozni's family, Eri's family, ¹⁷ Arod's family and Areli's family. ¹⁸ There were 40,500 men in the clans of the tribe of Gad.

¹⁹ The sons of Judah were Er and Onan, but Er and Onan died in Canaan. ²⁰ The tribe of Judah had these clans: Shelah's family, Perez's family, Zerah's family, ²¹ Hezron's family and Hamul's family. ²² There were 76,500 men in the clans of the tribe of Judah.

²³ The tribe of Issachar had these clans: Tola's family, Puah's family, ²⁴ Jashub's family and Shimron's family. ²⁵ There were 64,300 men in the clans of the tribe of Issachar.

²⁶ The tribe of Zebulun had these clans: Sered's family, Elon's family and Jahleel's family. ²⁷ There were 60,500 men in the clans of the tribe of Zebulun.

²⁸ The descendants of Joseph became two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim.

²⁹ The tribe of Manasseh had these clans: Makir's family and Gilead's family. Makir was Gilead's father. ³⁰ These clans came from Gilead's descendants: Iezer's family, Helek's family, ³¹ Asriel's family, Shechem's family, ³² Shemida's family and Hepher's family. ³³ Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, had no sons, but only daughters. The names of Zelophehad's daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. ³⁴ There were 52,700 men in the clans of the tribe of Manasseh.

³⁵ The tribe of Ephraim had these clans: Shuthelah's family, Becher's family, and Tahan's family. ³⁶ Eran's family was a clan from the descendants of Shuthelah. ³⁷ There were 32,500 men in the clans of the tribe of Ephraim. The clans of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim were all descendants of Joseph.

³⁸ The tribe of Benjamin had these clans: Bela's family, Ashbel's family, Ahiram's family, ³⁹ Shupham's family and Hupham's family. ⁴⁰ Ard's family and Naaman's family were clans from Bela's descendants. ⁴¹ There were 45,600 men in the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.

⁴² The tribe of Dan had this clan: Shuham's family. ⁴³ There were 64,400 men in Shuham's clan.

⁴⁴ The tribe of Asher had these clans: Imnah's family, Ishvi's family and Beriah's family. ⁴⁵ Heber's family and Malkiel's family were clans from Beriah's descendants. ⁴⁶ There was also a daughter of Asher who was called Serah. ⁴⁷ There were 53,400 men in the clans of the tribe of Asher.

⁴⁸ The tribe of Naphtali had these clans: Jahzeel's family, Guni's family, ⁴⁹ Jezer's family and Shillem's family. ⁵⁰ There were 45,400 men in the clans of the tribe of Naphtali.

⁵¹ There were 601,730 men on the list of all the Israelites.

³⁶ A very old woman called Anna was also there in the temple. She spoke messages that the Holy Spirit gave to her. She was the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher.^[a] She had lived with her husband for seven years and then he had died.

³⁷ After that, she had lived alone until she was 84 years old. Now she never left the temple. She stayed there day and night to worship God. She fasted and she prayed.

³⁸ At that moment, Anna came to where Mary and Joseph were standing in the temple. When she saw the baby, she thanked God for him. Then she began to speak about him to other people there. Many people were waiting for God to make Jerusalem free. These were the people that she spoke to about the child, Jesus.

³⁹ When Mary and Joseph had done everything that God's rules said, they returned home. That was in the town of Nazareth in Galilee. ⁴⁰ There the child grew up. God was good and kind to him and he became strong. He learned many things and he could understand them well.

Jesus visits the temple as a young boy

⁴¹ Every year, Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.^[b]

⁴² When Jesus was 12 years old, his parents took him with them to Jerusalem. They went as usual for the festival. ⁴³ When the week finished, Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem to return home. But Jesus stayed behind and his parents did not know this. ⁴⁴ They thought that he was with their group on the way home. They travelled for a whole day. Then they began to look for him among their family and friends.

⁴⁵ They could not find him, so they went back to Jerusalem. They looked for him there. ⁴⁶ After three days, they found him in the temple. He was sitting there among the teachers. He was listening to what they were saying. He was also asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard Jesus was very surprised. He understood so many things and he could answer difficult questions. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him there, they were also very surprised. His mother said to him, ‘My son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have looked everywhere for you. We have had a lot of troubles in our mind.’

⁴⁹ Jesus answered them, ‘You should not have needed to look for me. I must be doing what my Father wants me to do. You should have known that.’ ⁵⁰ But his parents did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁵¹ Then Jesus returned to Nazareth with them. He did what they wanted. His mother, Mary, was careful to remember all the special things that had happened. She thought about them a lot. ⁵² Jesus grew up into a man. He became strong and he could understand more and more things. God was pleased with him, and people were pleased with him too.

This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.

David wrote this prayer to teach people. He wrote it when he fought wars in north Syria. After the battle, Joab's army killed 12,000 of Edom's people in Salt Valley.

God, please help us!^[a]