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The people who returned to Jerusalem
9 All the Israelites' names were included in the lists of their ancestors. Those lists are written in the history book about Israel's kings.
The people of Judah had turned away from the Lord. Their enemies took them away to Babylon as their prisoners. 2 The first people who returned to their home towns after that were some priests, Levites, servants in the temple and other Israelites.
3-4 Some people from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem.
Those people included: Uthai, son of Ammihud and grandson of Omri. Omri was Imri's son. Imri was Bani's son. Bani was a descendant of Judah's son, Perez.
5 From the clan of Judah's son Shelah, there were Asaiah and his sons. Asaiah was the oldest son in his family.
6 From the clan of Judah's son Zerah, there was Jeuel.
There were 690 people from Judah's tribe who returned.
7 From Benjamin's tribe, there was: Sallu, the son of Meshullam and grandson of Hodaviah, who was Hassenuah's son. 8 There was also Jeroham's son Ibneiah, Elah the son of Uzzi and grandson of Mikri's, and Meshullam, son of Shephatiah and grandson of Reuel, who was Ibnijah's son.
9 There were 956 people from Benjamin's tribe who returned. Their names are written in the lists of their ancestors. All those men were leaders of their clans.
The priests who returned
10 The priests who returned to live in Jerusalem were: Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, Jakin and Azariah.[a] 11 Azariah was Hilkiah's son. Hilkiah was Meshullam's son. Meshullam was Zadok's son. Zadok was Meraioth's son. Meraioth was Ahitub's son. Ahitub was the most important officer in God's temple. 12 There was also Adaiah, the son of Jeroham and grandson of Pashhur, who was Malkijah's son. And there was Maasai, the son of Adiel and grandson of Jahzerah. Jahzerah was Meshullam's son. Meshullam was Meshillemith's son, and Meshillemith was Immer's son.
13 There were 1,760 priests and their relatives who returned. They were leaders of their clans. They were able to do their jobs well as they served God in his temple.
The Levites
14 From the Levites, there were: Shemaiah, the son of Hasshub and grandson of Azrikam, who was Hashabiah's son. Hashabiah belonged to Merari's clan. 15 There was Bakbakkar, Heresh, Galal and Mattaniah, the son of Mica and grandson of Zikri, who was a descendant of Asaph. 16 There was also Obadiah, the son of Shemaiah and grandson of Galal, who was Jeduthun's son. And there was Berekiah, the son of Asa and grandson of Elkanah. Elkanah had lived in the villages of the Netophath people.
Levites who were temple guards
17 The Levite guards at the gates of the temple were: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman and their relatives. Shallum was their leader. 18 Those guards stood at the King's Gate on the east side of the temple.
19 Shallum was the son of Kore and grandson of Ebiasaph, who belonged to Korah's clan. Shallum and his relatives from Korah's clan were guards at the entrance of the Lord's Holy Place. Their ancestors had also been guards at the entrance of the Lord's special tent. 20 Eleazar's son Phinehas had been the leader of the guards at one time. The Lord was with Phinehas to help him. 21 Meshelemiah's son Zechariah was also a guard at the entrance of the tent where the Lord met with his people.
22 There were 212 guards for the gates of the temple. Their names were written in the lists of their ancestors, for each village where they lived. King David and the prophet Samuel had chosen their ancestors to do this important work as guards. 23 Those men and their descendants had to stand as guards at the gates of the Lord's Holy Place, which had been a special tent. 24 The guards stood on the four sides of the Lord's house: the east, west, north and south sides. 25 Their relatives lived in their villages. They came to Jerusalem to help with the work as guards. Each time that they came, they worked there for seven days. 26 There were four faithful Levite guards who led the work. They kept safe the rooms in God's house where they stored valuable things and money. 27 They stayed at their places around God's house during each night. It was their work to keep it safe. Each morning they would use their key to open the gates.
28 Some of the guards kept safe the valuable things that the priests used when they served the Lord. The guards counted those things when the priests brought them in. They counted them again when the priests took them out.
29 Some other guards kept safe the tools and the valuable things that were in the Holy Place. Some guards took care of the flour, wine, olive oil, incense and spices. 30 But it was the work of some of the priests to mix the spices. 31 Mattithiah was a Levite who belonged to Korah's clan. His work was to prepare the bread that they used as offerings. 32 Other Levites who belonged to Kohath's clan prepared the bread for the special table. The priests put this bread on the special table in the Holy Place each Sabbath day.
33 Some of the Levites were musicians in the temple. The leaders of those clans lived in rooms at the temple. They needed to do their work as musicians during the night, as well as during the day. So they did not have other jobs to do in the temple. 34 Those men were the leaders of the Levite clans. Their names are written in the lists of their clans' ancestors. They lived in Jerusalem.
The descendants of Jeiel
35 Gibeon's father, Jeiel, lived in Gibeon town. His wife's name was Maakah. 36 His firstborn son was Abdon. His other sons were Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab, 37 Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah and Mikloth.
38 Mikloth became the father of Shimeam. They lived near their relatives in Jerusalem.
39 Ner became the father of Kish. Kish became the father of Saul. Saul became the father of Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab and Esh-Baal.
40 Jonathan's son was Merib-Baal. Merib-Baal became the father of Micah.
41 Micah's sons were: Pithon, Melech, Tahrea and Ahaz.
42 Ahaz became the father of Jadah.
Jadah became the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth and Zimri.
Zimri became the father of Moza.
43 Moza became the father of Binea. Binea's son was Rephaiah. Rephaiah's son was Eleasah. Eleasah's son was Azel. 44 Azel had six sons: Azrikam, Bokeru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah and Hanan. That is the list of Azel's sons.
Saul and his sons die in war
10 The Philistines fought against the Israelites.[b] The Israelites ran away, and the Philistines killed many of them on Gilboa mountain. 2 The Philistines chased after Saul and his sons to catch them. They killed Saul's sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. 3 The Philistines were fighting the battle all around Saul. Some of their soldiers saw Saul and they shot their arrows at him. The arrows hurt Saul very much.
4 Saul said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Kill me now with your sword. I do not want these foreign men to come and be cruel to me.’ But the young man would not agree to kill Saul because he was too afraid. So Saul took his own sword and he threw himself onto it so that he died. 5 The young man saw that Saul was dead. So he threw himself onto his own sword and he died too. 6 So Saul died there, with his three sons. His whole family died together.
7 All the Israelites who lived in Jezreel valley saw that their army had run away from the Philistines. They also saw that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their towns and they ran away. Then the Philistines came to live in those towns.
8 On the day after the battle, the Philistines came to take all the valuable things from the dead soldiers. They found the dead bodies of Saul and his sons on Gilboa mountain. 9 They removed everything from Saul's dead body. They took away his head and his weapons. Then they sent men through all the country of the Philistines with the news of Saul's death. These men told the news to all their people and to their idols as well. 10 They put Saul's weapons in the temple of their gods. They hung his head in the temple of their god, Dagon.
11 All the Israelites who lived in Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul's body. 12 So all their brave soldiers went to fetch the dead bodies of Saul and his sons. They took them to Jabesh Gilead. They buried the bones under the large tree there. The people in Jabesh Gilead did not eat any food for seven days because they were so sad.
13 Saul died because he turned away from the Lord. He did not obey the Lord's commands. He even tried to get advice from the spirits of dead people. 14 He did not ask the Lord to tell him what he should do. So the Lord punished him with death. The Lord gave the kingdom of Israel to Jesse's son, David, instead.
21 The men on the ship had not eaten any food for a long time. So Paul stood in front of them and he said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me! We should not have sailed away from Crete. If we had not left there, the ship and everything on it would still be safe. 22 Now I ask you, please be brave. The storm will completely destroy the ship, but not one of you will die. 23 Last night one of God's angels spoke to me. I am a servant of God and I belong to him. He sent his angel to come to me. 24 The angel said, “Paul, do not be afraid. You must go to Rome and Caesar will judge you there. Because of you, God will be kind to all the people on the ship with you. None of them will die.” 25 Because of the angel's message, I say to you, “Be brave, my friends!” I trust God. I know that everything will happen in the way that the angel told me. 26 But the wind will blow the ship so that we hit an island.’
27 The storm had continued for 14 days and nights. The strong wind was blowing the ship across the Mediterranean Sea. About midnight, the sailors thought that we were near to the land. 28 So they used a rope to measure how deep the water was. They saw that the water was nearly 40 metres deep. A short time later they did this again. This time the water was only 30 metres deep. 29 The sailors were afraid that the ship would hit some rocks. So they dropped four anchors on ropes from the back of the ship into the sea.
After that, they prayed that dawn would come soon. 30 Some of the sailors tried to leave the ship. They put the small boat into the sea. They tried to go away secretly. They said, ‘We are going to the front of the ship to put some more anchors down into the sea.’ But that was not true. 31 Paul said to the army officer and to the soldiers, ‘These sailors must stay on the ship. If they do not stay, you will not be safe. You will die.’ 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the small boat to the ship. The small boat fell into the water and the wind blew it away.
33 Now it was almost dawn. Paul said to everyone, ‘Please eat some food. You have now waited for 14 days for the storm to stop. You did not know what would happen. You have not eaten anything during all that time. 34 You must eat some food now. Then you will be strong enough to stay alive. None of you will die. You will not even lose one hair from your head.’
35 After Paul said this, he took some bread in his hands. He stood in front of them all and he thanked God for the bread. Then he broke the bread into pieces and he began to eat it. 36 Everyone became less afraid and we all ate some food. 37 There were 276 people on the ship. 38 After everyone had eaten enough, the sailors threw bags of wheat off the ship into the sea. Then the ship was not so heavy.[a]
The sea completely destroys the ship
39 In the morning, the ship was near to some land, but the sailors did not recognize the place. They saw a place on the shore where there was a lot of sand. They wanted to drive the ship onto the sand. 40 So the sailors cut the ropes which had the anchors on them. They left the anchors there in the sea. They also removed the ropes which had tied the rudders. Then they raised the sail at the front of the ship. Now the wind could blow the ship straight towards the shore. 41 But there was a place in the sea where the water was not deep. The ship sailed onto the sand in this place and it stayed there. The front of the ship pushed into the sand and it could not move. The sea was very strong and it hit against the back of the ship. As a result, the back of the ship broke into pieces.
42 The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners that they were guarding. They did not want these men to swim to the land and escape. 43 But the army officer wanted to save Paul. So he commanded the soldiers not to kill the men. Instead he said, ‘Everyone who can swim, jump into the water first. Then swim to the shore. 44 You other people must follow them. Hold on to pieces of wood, or pieces of the ship.’
In this way all of us got safely out of the sea and we arrived on the land.
The music leader must use special music.
This is a song that David wrote.
The sky at night[a]
8 Lord, our ruler,
your name is famous all over the world.
The sky above shows how great you are.
2 You have taught children and babies to praise you.
You do that to show your enemies how strong you are.
Anyone who turns against you has to be quiet.
Your cruel enemies can do nothing!
3 You made the skies with your own hands.
When I look up, I see the moon and the stars.
You have put them all in their right place.
4 So why do you even think about men and women?
Why do you take care of humans?
5 You have made their place a little below God himself.[b]
You have given them honour, like kings.
6 You have chosen them to rule everything that you have made.
You have put everything under their authority.
7-8 Yes! Humans rule them all:
Farm animals and wild animals,
birds, fish and all the things that swim in the sea.
9 Lord, our ruler,
your name is famous all over the world.
23 A poor person has to ask for help.
But a rich person can insult people.
24 A man with many friends may lose them.
But there is a friend who is more faithful than a brother.
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