The Daily Audio Bible

The Descendants of Issachar

7 Issachar had four sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

² Tola had six sons: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Shemuel. They were heads of families of the clan of Tola and were famous soldiers. At the time of King David their descendants numbered 22,600.

³ Uzzi had one son, Izrahiah. Izrahiah and his four sons, Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah, were all heads of families. ⁴ They had so many wives and children that their descendants were able to provide 36,000 men for military duty.

⁵ The official records of all the families of the tribe of Issachar listed 87,000 men eligible for military duty.

The Descendants of Benjamin and Dan

⁶ Benjamin had three sons: Bela, Becher, and Jediael.

⁷ Bela had five sons: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri. They were heads of families in the clan and were all famous soldiers. Their descendants included 22,034 men eligible for military duty.

⁸ Becher had nine sons: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth. ⁹ The official record of their descendants by families listed 20,200 men eligible for military duty.

¹⁰ Jediael had one son, Bilhan, and Bilhan had seven sons: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar. ¹¹ They were heads of families in the clan and were all famous soldiers. Their descendants included 17,200 men eligible for military duty. ¹² Shuppim and Huppim also belonged to this tribe.

Dan had one son, Hushim.^[a]

The Descendants of Naphtali

¹³ Naphtali had four sons: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shallum. (They were descendants of Bilhah.^[b])

The Descendants of Manasseh

¹⁴ By his Aramean concubine, Manasseh had two sons, Asriel and Machir. Machir was the father of Gilead. ¹⁵ Machir found a wife for Huppim and one for Shuppim. His sister's name was Maacah. Machir's second son was Zelophehad, and he had only daughters.

¹⁶ Maacah, Machir's wife, gave birth to two sons, whom they named Peresh and Sheresh. Peresh had two sons, Ulam and Rakem, ¹⁷ and Ulam had a son named Bedan. These are all descendants of Gilead, the son of Machir and grandson of Manasseh.

¹⁸ Gilead's sister Hammolecheth had three sons: Ishod, Abiezer, and Mahlah. (¹⁹ Shemida had four sons: Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam.)

The Descendants of Ephraim

²⁰ These are the descendants of Ephraim from generation to generation: Shuthelah, Bered, Tahath, Eleadah, Tahath, ²¹ Zabad, Shuthelah. Ephraim had two other sons besides Shuthelah: Ezer and Elead, who were killed when they tried to steal the livestock belonging to the native inhabitants of Gath. ²² Their father Ephraim mourned for them for many days, and his relatives came to comfort him. ²³ Then he had intercourse with his wife again, and she became pregnant and had a son. They named him Beriah,^[c] because of the trouble that had come to their family.

²⁴ Ephraim had a daughter named Sheerah. She built the towns of Upper and Lower Beth Horon, and Uzzen Sheerah.

²⁵ Ephraim also had a son named Rephah, whose descendants were as follows: Resheph, Telah, Tahan, ²⁶ Ladan, Ammihud, Elishama, ²⁷ Nun, Joshua.

²⁸ The territory which they took and settled included Bethel and the towns around it, as far east as Naaran and as far west as Gezer and the towns around it. It also included the cities of Shechem and Ayyah, and the towns around them.

²⁹ The descendants of Manasseh controlled the cities of Beth Shan, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor, and the towns around them.

All these are the places where the descendants of Joseph son of Jacob lived.

The Descendants of Asher

³⁰ These are the descendants of Asher. He had four sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah; and one daughter, Serah.

³¹ Beriah had two sons, Heber and Malchiel. (Malchiel founded the city of Birzaith.)

³² Heber had three sons: Japhlet, Shomer, and Hotham; and one daughter, Shua.

³³ Japhlet also had three sons: Pasach, Bimhal, and Ashvath.

³⁴ His brother Shomer had three sons: Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram.

³⁵ His brother Hotham^[d] had four sons: Zophah, Imna, Shelesh, and Amal.

³⁶ The descendants of Zophah were Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah, ³⁷ Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran, and Beera.

³⁸ The descendants of Jether were Jephunneh, Pispa, and Ara, ³⁹ and the descendants of Ulla were Arah, Hanniel, and Rizia.

⁴⁰ All of these were descendants of Asher. They were heads of families, famous fighting men, outstanding leaders. Asher's descendants included 26,000 men eligible for military duty.

The Descendants of Benjamin

8 Benjamin had five sons. In order of age they were Bela, Ashbel, Aharah, ² Nohah, and Rapha.

³ The descendants of Bela were Addar, Gera, Abihud, ⁴ Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, ⁵ Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram.

^6-7 The descendants of Ehud were Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera. They were heads of families that lived in Geba, but which were forced out and went to live in Manahath. Gera, the father of Uzza and Ahihud, led them in this move.

^8-9 Shaharaim divorced two wives, Hushim and Baara. Later, when he lived in the country of Moab, he married Hodesh and had seven sons: Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam, ¹⁰ Jeuz, Sachia, and Mirmah. His sons all became heads of families.

¹¹ He also had two sons by Hushim: Abitub and Elpaal.

¹² Elpaal had three sons: Eber, Misham, and Shemed. It was Shemed who built the cities of Ono and Lod and the surrounding villages.

The Benjaminites in Gath and Aijalon

¹³ Beriah and Shema were heads of families that settled in the city of Aijalon and drove out the people who lived in the city of Gath. ¹⁴ Beriah's descendants included Ahio, Shashak, Jeremoth, ¹⁵ Zebadiah, Arad, Eder, ¹⁶ Michael, Ishpah, and Joha.

The Benjaminites in Jerusalem

¹⁷ Elpaal's descendants included Zebadiah, Meshullam, Hizki, Heber, ¹⁸ Ishmerai, Izliah, and Jobab.

¹⁹ Shimei's descendants included Jakim, Zichri, Zabdi, ²⁰ Elienai, Zillethai, Eliel, ²¹ Adaiah, Beraiah, and Shimrath.

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

²⁶ Jeroham's descendants included Shamsherai, Shehariah, Athaliah, ²⁷ Jaareshiah, Elijah, and Zichri.

²⁸ These were the ancestral heads of families and their principal descendants who lived in Jerusalem.

The Benjaminites in Gibeon and Jerusalem

²⁹ Jeiel^[e] founded the city of Gibeon and settled there. His wife was named Maacah, ³⁰ and his oldest son, Abdon. His other sons were Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner,^[f] Nadab, ³¹ Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, ³² and Mikloth, the father of Shimeah. Their descendants lived in Jerusalem near other families of their clan.

The Family of King Saul

³³ Ner was the father of Kish, and Kish was the father of King Saul. Saul had four sons: Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.^{[g] 34} Jonathan was the father of Meribbaal,^[h] who was the father of Micah.

³⁵ Micah had four sons: Pithon, Melech, Tarea, and Ahaz. ³⁶ Ahaz was the father of Jehoaddah, who was the father of three sons: Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. Zimri was the father of Moza, ³⁷ Moza the father of Binea, Binea of Raphah, Raphah of Eleasah, and Eleasah of Azel.

³⁸ Azel had six sons: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. ³⁹ Azel's brother Eshek had three sons: Ulam, Jeush, and Eliphelet.

⁴⁰ Ulam's sons were outstanding soldiers and archers. He had a hundred and fifty sons and grandsons in all. All those named above were members of the tribe of Benjamin.

Paul Sails for Rome

27 When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to Julius, an officer in the Roman army regiment called “The Emperor's Regiment.” ² We went aboard a ship from Adramyttium, which was ready to leave for the seaports of the province of Asia, and we sailed away. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. ³ The next day we arrived at Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul and allowed him to go and see his friends, to be given what he needed. ⁴ We went on from there, and because the winds were blowing against us, we sailed on the sheltered side of the island of Cyprus. ⁵ We crossed over the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and came to Myra in Lycia. ⁶ There the officer found a ship from Alexandria that was going to sail for Italy, so he put us aboard.

⁷ We sailed slowly for several days and with great difficulty finally arrived off the town of Cnidus. The wind would not let us go any farther in that direction, so we sailed down the sheltered side of the island of Crete, passing by Cape Salmone. ⁸ We kept close to the coast and with great difficulty came to a place called Safe Harbors, not far from the town of Lasea.

⁹ We spent a long time there, until it became dangerous to continue the voyage, for by now the Day of Atonement^[a] was already past. So Paul gave them this advice: ¹⁰ “Men, I see that our voyage from here on will be dangerous; there will be great damage to the cargo and to the ship, and loss of life as well.” ¹¹ But the army officer was convinced by what the captain and the owner of the ship said, and not by what Paul said. ¹² The harbor was not a good one to spend the winter in; so almost everyone was in favor of putting out to sea and trying to reach Phoenix, if possible, in order to spend the winter there. Phoenix is a harbor in Crete that faces southwest and northwest.^[b]

The Storm at Sea

¹³ A soft wind from the south began to blow, and the men thought that they could carry out their plan, so they pulled up the anchor and sailed as close as possible along the coast of Crete. ¹⁴ But soon a very strong wind—the one called “Northeaster”—blew down from the island. ¹⁵ It hit the ship, and since it was impossible to keep the ship headed into the wind, we gave up trying and let it be carried along by the wind. ¹⁶ We got some shelter when we passed to the south of the little island of Cauda. There, with some difficulty we managed to make the ship's boat secure. ¹⁷ They pulled it aboard and then fastened some ropes tight around the ship. They were afraid that they might run into the sandbanks off the coast of Libya, so they lowered the sail and let the ship be carried by the wind. ¹⁸ The violent storm continued, so on the next day they began to throw some of the ship's cargo overboard, ¹⁹ and on the following day they threw part of the ship's equipment overboard. ²⁰ For many days we could not see the sun or the stars, and the wind kept on blowing very hard. We finally gave up all hope of being saved.

A Prayer for Justice^[a]

^22 (A)Find a wife and you find a good thing; it shows that the Lord is good to you.