The Daily Audio Bible

The descendants of Issachar

7 Issachar had four sons. They were Tola, Puah, Jashub and Shimron. ² Tola's sons were Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam and Samuel. They were leaders of their clans. Among Tola's descendants there were 22,600 brave soldiers when David was king. ³ Uzzi's son was Izrahiah. Izrahiah's sons were Michael, Obadiah, Joel and Isshiah. All those five men in Uzzi's family were leaders. ⁴ The books of their clans show that they had many wives and sons. They had 36,000 men who were ready to fight in the army. ⁵ The books of the clans of Issachar show that they had 87,000 brave soldiers.

The descendants of Benjamin

⁶ Benjamin had three sons. They were Bela, Becher and Jediael. ⁷ Bela had five sons. They were Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth and Iri. They were leaders of their clans. The books of their ancestors show that they had 22,034 brave soldiers. ⁸ Becher's sons were Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth and Alemeth. All those men were sons of Becher. ⁹ The books of their ancestors include a list of those clan leaders. Also the books show that they had 22,200 brave soldiers. ¹⁰ Jediael's son was Bilhan. Bilhan's sons were Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Kenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish and Ahishahar. ¹¹ All those sons of Jediael were leaders of their clans. They had 17,200 brave soldiers who were ready to fight in the army. ¹² Shuppim and Huppim were descendants of Ir. The people called the Hushim were descendants of Aher.

The descendants of Naphtali

¹³ Naphtali's sons were Jahziel, Guni, Jezer and Shallum. They were Bilhah's grandsons.

The half tribe of Manasseh in the west

¹⁴ These are Manasseh's descendants. Manasseh had a woman that he lived with. She was from the country called Syria. She was the mother of Asriel and Makir. Makir was Gilead's father. ¹⁵ Makir's wife was one of the Huppim and Shuppim people. His sister's name was Maakah. Zelophehad was another descendant of Makir. Zelophehad had only daughters. ¹⁶ Makir's wife Maakah had a son and she called him Peresh. Peresh's brother was Sheresh and Sheresh's sons were Ulam and Rekem. ¹⁷ Ulam's son was Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead. Gilead was the son of Makir and Makir was Manasseh's son. ¹⁸ Hammoleketh was Gilead's sister. And she had sons called Ishhod, Abiezer and Mahlah. ¹⁹ The sons of Shemida were Ahian, Shechem, Likhi and Aniam.

The descendants of Ephraim

²⁰ These are the names of Ephraim's descendants. Ephraim's son was Shuthelah. Shuthelah's son was Bered and Bered's son was Tahath. Tahath's son was Eleadah and Eleadah's son was Tahath. ²¹ Tahath's son was Zabad and Zabad's son was Shuthelah.

Ezer and Elead were also sons of Ephraim. They went to Gath and they tried to take some cows and sheep from there. So some men who were born in that city killed them. ²² Their father Ephraim cried for them and he was sad for many days. And his family came to help him. ²³ Then Ephraim had sex with his wife and they had another son. Ephraim called him Beriah. That name means ‘trouble’. Ephraim chose that name because of his family's troubles. ²⁴ Beriah's daughter was Sheerah. She built Lower and Higher Beth-Horon. And she built Uzzen-Sheerah.

²⁵ And Beriah's son was Rephah. And Rephah's son was Resheph. Resheph's son was Telah and Telah's son was Tahan. ²⁶ Tahan's son was Ladan. Ladan's son was Ammihud and Ammihud's son was Elishama. ²⁷ Elishama's son was Nun and Joshua was the son of Nun.^[a]

²⁸ Ephraim's descendants lived in Bethel and in the villages near it. And they had land there. Also they lived in Naaran in the east. And they lived in Gezer and in the villages near it. Those places were in the west. Also, they lived in Shechem and in the villages near it. And they lived in Ayyah and in the villages near it. ²⁹ Along the borders of the land which belonged to Manasseh's descendants were other towns. They included Beth-Shan and the villages near it and Taanach and its villages. They also included Megiddo and its villages and Dor and its villages. The descendants of Joseph (son of Israel) lived in those towns and villages.

The descendants of Asher

³⁰ Asher's sons were Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Beriah and their sister was Serah. ³¹ Beriah's sons were Heber and Malkiel and Malkiel was Birzaith's father. ³² Heber was the father of Japhlet, Shomer, Hotham and their sister Shua. ³³ Japhlet's sons were Pasach, Bimhal and Ashvath. They were Japhlet's sons. ³⁴ Shemer's sons were Ahi, Rohgah, Hubbah and Aram. ³⁵ Shemer's brother was Helem and Helem's sons were Zophah, Imna, Shelesh and Amal. ^36-37 Zophah's sons were Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah, Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran and Beera. ³⁸ Jether's sons were Jephunneh, Pispah and Ara. ³⁹ Ulla's sons were Arah, Hanniel and Rizia.

⁴⁰ All those men were descendants of Asher. They were leaders of their clans. They were great and brave soldiers and great leaders. They had 26,000 men ready to fight in the army. There were lists that showed those men's names with their clans.

The descendants of Benjamin

8 Benjamin became the father of Bela, his firstborn son. Ashbel was his second son. Aharah was his third son. ² Nohah was his fourth son. Rapha was his fifth son.

³ Bela's sons were: Addar, Gera, Abihud, ⁴ Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, ⁵ Gera, Shephuphan and Huram.

⁶ Here is a list of the descendants of Ehud who were the leaders of their clans.^[b] They were living in Geba, but they had to leave there and move to Manahath. ⁷ Ehud's descendants were: Naaman, Ahijah and Gera. It was Gera who led them to Manahath. He became the father of Uzza and Ahihud.

^8-11 Shaharaim and his wife Hushim had sons called Abitub and Elpaal. In Moab, Shaharaim sent away his two wives, Hushim and Baara. After that, Shaharaim married Hodesh. They had sons called Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam, Jeuz, Sakia and Mirmah. They were leaders of their clans.

^12-13 Elpaal's sons were: Eber, Misham, Shemed, Beriah and Shema. Shemed built the towns of Ono and Lod, and the villages around them. Beriah and Shema were leaders of the clans that lived in Aijalon city. They chased the people of Gath out of their city.

¹⁴ Beriah's descendants were: Ahio, Shashak, Jeremoth, ¹⁵ Zebadiah, Arad, Eder, ¹⁶ Michael, Ishpah and Joha.

¹⁷ Elpaal's descendants were: Zebadiah, Meshullam, Hizki, Heber, ¹⁸ Ishmerai, Izliah and Jobab. ¹⁹ Shimei's descendants were: Jakim, Zikri, Zabdi, ²⁰ Elienai, Zillethai, Eliel, ²¹ Adaiah, Beraiah and Shimrath.

²² Shashak's descendants were: Ishpan, Eber, Eliel, ²³ Abdon, Zikri, Hanan, ²⁴ Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah, ²⁵ Iphdeiah and Penuel.

²⁶ Jeroham's descendants were: Shamsherai, Shehariah, Athaliah, ²⁷ Jaareshiah, Elijah and Zikri.

²⁸ The history books show that all those men were leaders of their clans. They lived in Jerusalem.

Saul's family

²⁹ Gibeon's father lived in Gibeon town. His wife's name was Maakah. ³⁰ His firstborn son was Abdon. His other sons were Zur, Kish, Baal, Nadab, ³¹ Gedor, Ahio, Zeker and Mikloth.^[c]

³² Mikloth became the father of Shimeah. They lived near their relatives in Jerusalem.

³³ Ner became the father of Kish. Kish became the father of Saul. Saul became the father of Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab and Esh-Baal.

³⁴ Jonathan's son was Merib-Baal. Merib-Baal became the father of Micah.

³⁵ Micah's sons were: Pithon, Melech, Tarea and Ahaz.

³⁶ Ahaz became the father of Jehoaddah. Jehoaddah became the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth and Zimri. Zimri became the father of Moza. ³⁷ Moza became the father of Binea. Binea's son was Raphah. Raphah's son was Eleasah. Eleasah's son was Azel.

³⁸ Azel had six sons: Azrikam, Bokeru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah and Hanan. That is the list of Azel's sons.

³⁹ Azel's brother was Eshek. Eshek's sons were: Ulam, his firstborn son, then Jeush and then Eliphelet.

⁴⁰ Ulam's sons were brave soldiers. They could shoot arrows very well. They had 150 sons and grandsons.

All those men were descendants of Benjamin.

Soldiers take Paul to Rome

27 Some time after that, Festus decided that we should sail to Italy. So he commanded a soldier called Julius to guard Paul and some other prisoners. Julius was an officer in the Roman army. He had authority over 100 soldiers in a group called ‘The Emperor Augustus Group’.^[a]

² We went onto a ship that had come from Adramyttium. This ship was ready to leave. It would sail to the towns on the coast of Asia region. A man called Aristarchus also sailed with us. He came from a city in Macedonia called Thessalonica.

³ The next day after we left Caesarea, we arrived at Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul. He said, ‘Paul, you can go and visit your friends here. They can give you anything that you need.’ ⁴ Then we sailed out across the sea again. But the wind was blowing against our ship. So we sailed round the island called Cyprus. We sailed on the side of the island where the wind was not strong. ⁵ When we were near to Cilicia and Pamphylia, we sailed straight across the sea. Then we arrived at Myra, in the region called Lycia. ⁶ The Roman officer found another ship there. It had sailed from Alexandria and it would sail to Italy. So the officer put us on this ship. ⁷ We sailed slowly for several days. It was difficult to sail, but after some time we arrived near the town of Cnidus. Because of the strong wind, we could not continue to sail in that direction. So we sailed along the side of the island called Crete, where the wind was not strong. We sailed past the point of land called Salmone. ⁸ It was still difficult to sail, so we sailed near to the coast. Then we arrived at a place called ‘Safe Port’. This port was near to the town of Lasea.

⁹ We remained there for many days. By then it had become dangerous to continue the journey. It was already after the Day of Atonement.^[b]

So Paul spoke to the army officer and to the sailors. ¹⁰ He said, ‘Friends, I understand that now our journey will be dangerous. The ship may break in pieces. You may lose the things that the ship is carrying. All of us may even die.’ ¹¹ But the army officer did not believe what Paul said. Instead, he decided to do what the owner of the ship and the captain said.^[c]

¹² This port was not a good place for a ship to remain during the winter. Most of the men on the ship wanted to continue the journey. They wanted to sail as far as Phoenix, if they could get there. They could stay there for the winter. Phoenix was a port on the island called Crete. It was open to the sea both to the south-west and to the north-west.^[d]

The ship is in a storm

¹³ The wind began to blow from the south, but it was not strong. So the sailors thought, ‘Now we can do what we wanted to do. We can sail to Phoenix.’ So they pulled up the ship's anchor and left the port. Then we sailed as near as we could to the coast of Crete.

¹⁴ But soon a very strong wind began to blow. This wind blew from the north-east and it blew strongly across the island. ¹⁵ The storm hit the ship very powerfully. It was not possible for the sailors to sail the ship straight into the wind. So they did not try to do that any more. Instead, they let the wind blow the ship along. ¹⁶ After that, we passed the south end of a small island called Cauda. Here we found a place where the wind did not blow so strongly. The sailors lifted the ship's small boat out of the water to make it safe. ¹⁷ They tied it on the ship with ropes. Then they tied some more ropes under the ship so that it would not break in pieces. The men were afraid of what might happen. There were some places along the coast of Libya where the water was not very deep. The ship might hit one of these places and then it might break. So they took the ship's largest sail down. Then they let the wind blow the ship along. ¹⁸ The strong storm continued to blow against the ship. The ship was carrying many things. So the next day, the sailors threw some of these things into the sea. ¹⁹ The day after that, they took hold of the sails and ropes and they threw them into the sea. ²⁰ For many days, we did not see the sun or any stars.^[e] The storm continued to blow strongly. So then we thought, ‘It is not possible for us to remain alive.’

A song with music that David wrote.

He sang this song to the Lord about Benjamin's descendant, Cush.

God always does what is right^[a]