¹⁸ Caleb son of Hezron fathered children by Azubah his wife and by Jerioth. These were her sons: Jesher, Shobab and Ardon. ¹⁹ When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur. ²⁰ Hur fathered Uri and Uri fathered Bezalel.

²¹ Afterward Hezron had relations with the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead—he had married her when he was 60 years old—and she bore him Segub.

²² Segub fathered Jair, who had 23 cities in the land of Gilead. ²³ But Geshur and Aram took the towns of Jair from them, along with Kenath and its surrounding villages, 60 towns. All these were the sons of Machir the father of Gilead.

²⁴ After the death of Hezron in Caleb-ephrath, Abijah, Hezron’s wife, bore him Ashhur the father of Tekoa.

²⁵ Now the sons of Jerahmeel, the firstborn of Hezron: Ram the firstborn, then Bunah, Oren, Ozem and Ahijah. ²⁶ Jerahmeel had another wife whose name was Atarah; she was the mother of Onam.

²⁷ The sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jerahmeel:

Maaz, Jamin and Eker.

²⁸ The sons of Onam:

Shammai and Jada.

The sons of Shammai:

Nadab and Abishur.

²⁹ The name of the wife of Abishur was Abihail, and she bore him Ahban and Molid.

³⁰ The sons of Nadab:

Seled and Appaim, but Seled died without children.

³¹ The sons of Appaim:

Ishi, who was the father of Sheshan.

Sheshan was the father of Ahlai.

³² The sons of Jada the brother of Shammai:

Jeter and Jonathan—Jeter died without sons.

³³ The sons of Jonathan:

Pelet and Zaza.

These were the sons of Jerahmeel.

³⁴ Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. But Sheshan had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha. ³⁵ So Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as a wife, and she bore him Attai. ³⁶ Then Attai fathered Nathan, and Nathan fathered Zabad. ³⁷ Zabad fathered Ephlal and Ephlal fathered Obed. ³⁸ Obed fathered Jehu, and Jehu fathered Azariah. ³⁹ Azariah fathered Helez, and Helez fathered Eleasah. ⁴⁰ Eleasah fathered Sisamai, and Sisamai fathered Shallum. ⁴¹ Shallum fathered Jekamiah, and Jekamiah fathered Elishama.

⁴² Now the sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel:

Mesha his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph, and his son Mareshah the father of Hebron.

⁴³ The sons of Hebron:

Korah, Tappuah, Rekem and Shema.

⁴⁴ Shema fathered Raham, the father of Jorkeam. Rekem fathered Shammai. ⁴⁵ The son of Shammai was Maon and Maon was the father of Beth-Zur.

⁴⁶ Ephah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Haran, Moza and Gazez; and Haran fathered Gazez.

⁴⁷ The sons of Jahdai:

Regem, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah and Shaaph.

⁴⁸ Maacah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah. ⁴⁹ She also bore Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheba the father of Machbenah and the father of Gibea. The daughter of Caleb was Achsah. ⁵⁰ These were the descendants of Caleb.

The sons of Hur the firstborn of Ephrath:

Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim, ⁵¹ Salma the father of Beth-lehem and Hareph the father of Beth-gader.

⁵² Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim had sons:

Haroeh, half of the Menuhites. ⁵³ The clans of Kiriath-jearim: the Itrites, the Puhtites, the Shumathites, the Mishraites; from them came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites.

⁵⁴ The sons of Salma:

Beth-lehem, the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab, half the Manahathites, the Zorites, ⁵⁵ and the clans of scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucathites. These were the Kenites who descended from Hammath, the father of the Rechabites.

David’s Descendants

3 Now these were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron:

the firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite woman;

second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite woman;

² third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of King Talmai of Geshur;

fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith;

³ fifth, Shephatiah by Abital; the sixth, Ithream by his wife Eglah.

⁴ Six were born to him in Hebron. There he reigned seven years and six months; then in Jerusalem he reigned 33 years.

⁵ These were born to him in Jerusalem:

Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon. These four were from Bath-shua^[a] the daughter of Ammiel;

⁶ and the other nine were Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, ⁷ Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, ⁸ Elishama, Eliada and Eliphelet. ⁹ All these were sons of David, besides his sons by the concubines. Tamar was their sister.

¹⁰ Solomon’s son was Rehoboam.

Abijah was his son,

Asa his son,

Jehoshaphat his son,

¹¹ Joram his son,

Ahaziah his son,

Joash his son,

¹² Amaziah his son,

Azariah his son,

Jotham his son,

¹³ Ahaz his son,

Hezekiah his son,

Manasseh his son,

¹⁴ Amon his son,

and Josiah his son.

¹⁵ The sons of Josiah:

Johanan the firstborn,

Jehoiakim the second,

Zedekiah the third,

and Shallum the fourth.

¹⁶ The sons of Jehoiakim:

Jeconiah was his son,

Zedekiah his son.

¹⁷ The sons of Jeconiah, the captive:

Shealtiel his son, ¹⁸ Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah.

¹⁹ The sons of Pedaiah:

Zerubbabel and Shimei.

The sons of Zerubbabel:

Meshullam and Hananiah; Shelomith was their sister, ²⁰ and five others:

Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah and Jushabhesed.

²¹ The sons of Hananiah:

Pelatiah and Jeshaiah, whose son was Rephaiah, whose son was Arnan, whose son was Obadiah, whose son was Shecaniah.

²² The descendants of Shecaniah:

Shemaiah and sons Hatush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat—six in all.

²³ The sons of Neariah: Elioenai, Hizkiah and Azrikam—three in all.

²⁴ The sons of Elioenai were Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah and Anani—seven in all.

Judah’s Descendants

4 The sons of Judah:

Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur and Shobal.

² Reaiah the son of Shobal fathered Jahath, and Jahath fathered Ahumai and Lahad. These were the families of the Zorathites.

³ These were the sons of Etam:

Jezreel, Ishma and Idbash. The name of their sister was Hazlelponi.

⁴ Penuel was the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These were the descendants of Hur the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Beth-lehem.

Defense Before Governor Felix

24 After five days, the kohen gadol Ananias came down with some of the elders and an attorney named Tertullus. They brought formal charges against Paul before the governor. ² When Paul was called in, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, “We are enjoying much peace through you, and reforms are introduced for this nation because of your foresight. ³ We acknowledge this, most excellent Felix, in every way and every place with all gratitude.

⁴ “But in order that I may not weary you any longer, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. ⁵ For we have found this man to be a pest, stirring up riots among all the Jewish people throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Natzratim. ⁶ He even tried to defile the Temple, but we seized him. ^{[a] 8} By examining him yourself, you will be able to learn from him all these things about which we accuse him.”

⁹ The Judean leaders also joined in the attack, affirming that these things were true. ¹⁰ When the governor nodded for him to speak, Paul responded: “Knowing that you have been judge over this nation for many years, I gladly make my own defense. ¹¹ As you can verify, it is no more than twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship. ¹² They did not find me arguing with anyone or inciting a riot—not in the Temple or in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. ¹³ Nor can they prove to you the charges they now bring against me.

¹⁴ “But this I confess to you, that according to the Way (which they call a sect), I worship the God of our fathers,^[b] believing everything written in the Torah and the Prophets. ¹⁵ In God I have a hope—which these men also wait for—that there will surely be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.^[c]

¹⁶ “Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience before both God and men. ¹⁷ Now after several years, I came to bring tzedakah to my country for the poor and to present offerings. ¹⁸ As I was doing this, they found me in the Temple, having been purified—without any crowd or uproar. ¹⁹ But there were some Jewish people from Asia, who ought to be here before you to press charges if they have anything against me. ²⁰ Or let these men themselves tell what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the Sanhedrin— ²¹ except for this one cry I shouted out while standing among them: ‘It is about the resurrection of the dead that today I am on trial before you.’”

In Prison for Two Years

²² But Felix, having a rather extensive knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the commander comes down, I will rule on your case.” ²³ Then he gave the centurion orders for Paul to be kept in custody and yet have some freedom, and not to prevent any of his friends from attending to his needs.

²⁴ Now some days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him speak about faith in Messiah Yeshua. ²⁵ But as he was arguing about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became afraid and said, “Go away for now! When I find time, I will summon you.”

²⁶ At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given to him by Paul; so he sent for him frequently and would talk with him. ²⁷ But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and wishing to do the Judean leaders a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

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Prayer for Sleep in Shalom

Psalm 4

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Overcoming Opposition and Offenses

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