The Daily Audio Bible

⁵ Ashhur, who founded the town of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah. ⁶ He and Naarah had four sons: Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni, and Haahashtari. ⁷ Ashhur and Helah had three sons: Zereth, Izhar, and Ethnan.

⁸ Koz was the father of Anub and Zobebah, and the ancestor of the clans descended from Aharhel son of Harum.

⁹ There was a man named Jabez, who was the most respected member of his family. His mother had given him the name Jabez,^[a] because his birth had been very painful. ¹⁰ But Jabez prayed to the God of Israel, “Bless me, God, and give me much land. Be with me and keep me from anything evil that might cause me pain.” And God gave him what he prayed for.

Other Family Lists

¹¹ Caleb, the brother of Shuhah, had a son, Mehir. Mehir was the father of Eshton, ¹² who had three sons: Bethrapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah. Tehinnah was the founder of the city of Nahash. The descendants of these men lived in Recah.

¹³ Kenaz had two sons, Othniel and Seraiah. Othniel also had two sons, Hathath and Meonothai.^{[b] 14} Meonothai was the father of Ophrah.

Seraiah was the father of Joab, the founder of Handcraft Valley, where all the people were skilled workers.

¹⁵ Caleb son of Jephunneh had three sons: Iru, Elah, and Naam. And Elah was the father of Kenaz.

¹⁶ Jehallelel had four sons: Ziph, Ziphah, Tiria, and Asarel.

^17-18 Ezrah had four sons: Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. Mered married Bithiah, a daughter of the king of Egypt, and they had a daughter, Miriam, and two sons, Shammai and Ishbah. Ishbah founded the town of Eshtemoa. Mered also married a woman from the tribe of Judah, and they had three sons: Jered, who founded the town of Gedor; Heber, founder of the town of Soco; and Jekuthiel, founder of the town of Zanoah.

¹⁹ Hodiah married the sister of Naham. Their descendants founded the clan of Garm, which lived in the town of Keilah, and the clan of Maacath, which lived in the town of Eshtemoa.^[c]

²⁰ Shimon had four sons: Amnon, Rinnah, Benhanan, and Tilon.

Ishi had two sons: Zoheth and Benzoheth.

The Descendants of Shelah

²¹ Shelah was one of Judah's sons. His descendants included Er, who founded the town of Lecah; Laadah, founder of the town of Mareshah; the clan of linen weavers, who lived in the town of Beth Ashbea; ²² Jokim and the people who lived in the town of Cozeba; and Joash and Saraph, who married Moabite women and then settled in Bethlehem.^[d] (These traditions are very old.) ²³ They were potters in the service of the king and lived in the towns of Netaim and Gederah.

The Descendants of Simeon

²⁴ Simeon had five sons: Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, and Shaul. ²⁵ Shaul's son was Shallum, his grandson was Mibsam, and his great-grandson was Mishma. ²⁶ Then from Mishma the line descended through Hammuel, Zaccur, and Shimei. ²⁷ Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his relatives had fewer children, and the tribe of Simeon did not grow as much as the tribe of Judah did.

^28 (A)Down to the time of King David the descendants of Simeon lived in the following towns: Beersheba, Moladah, Hazarshual, ²⁹ Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, ³⁰ Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag, ³¹ Beth Marcaboth, Hazarsusim, Bethbiri, and Shaaraim. ³² They also lived in five other places: Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan, ³³ and the surrounding villages, as far southwest as the town of Baalath. These are the records which they kept of their families and of the places where they lived.

^34-38 The following men were the heads of their clans:

Because their families continued to grow, ³⁹ they spread out westward almost to Gerar^[e] and pastured their sheep on the eastern side of the valley in which that city is located. ⁴⁰ They found plenty of fertile pasture lands there in a stretch of open country that was quiet and peaceful. The people who had lived there before were Hamites.

⁴¹ In the time of King Hezekiah of Judah, the men named above went to Gerar and destroyed the tents and huts of the people who lived there.^[f] They drove the people out and settled there permanently because there was plenty of pasture for their sheep. ⁴² Five hundred other members of the tribe of Simeon went east to Edom. They were led by the sons of Ishi: Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel. ⁴³ There they killed the surviving Amalekites, and they have lived there ever since.

The Descendants of Reuben

5 ^(B)These are the descendants of Reuben, the oldest of Jacob's sons. (Because he had sex with one of his father's concubines, he lost the rights belonging to the first-born son, and those rights were given to Joseph. ^2 (C)It was the tribe of Judah, however, that became the strongest and provided a ruler for all the tribes.) ³ Reuben, the oldest of Jacob's sons, had four sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

^4-6 (D)These are the descendants of Joel from generation to generation: Shemaiah, Gog, Shimei, Micah, Reaiah, Baal, and Beerah. The Assyrian emperor, Tiglath Pileser, captured Beerah, a leader of the tribe, and deported him.

⁷ The family records list the following clan leaders in the tribe of Reuben: Jeiel, Zechariah, ⁸ and Bela, the son of Azaz and grandson of Shema, of the clan of Joel. This clan lived in Aroer and in the territory from there north to Nebo and Baal Meon. ⁹ They had large herds in the land of Gilead, and so they occupied the land as far east as the desert that stretches all the way to the Euphrates River.

¹⁰ In the time of King Saul the tribe of Reuben attacked the Hagrites, killed them in battle, and occupied their land in the eastern part of Gilead.

The Descendants of Gad

¹¹ The tribe of Gad lived to the north of Reuben in the land of Bashan as far east as Salecah. ¹² Joel was the founder of the leading clan, and Shapham of the second most important clan. Janai and Shaphat were founders of other clans in Bashan. ¹³ The other members of the tribe belonged to the following seven clans: Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia, and Eber. ¹⁴ They were descendants of Abihail son of Huri, whose ancestors were traced back as follows: Abihail, Huri, Jaroah, Gilead, Michael, Jeshishai, Jahdo, Buz. ¹⁵ Ahi, the son of Abdiel and grandson of Guni, was head of these clans. ¹⁶ They lived in the territory of Bashan and Gilead, in the towns there and all over the pasture lands of Sharon. (¹⁷ These records were compiled in the days of King Jotham of Judah and King Jeroboam II of Israel.)

Paul Appeals to the Emperor

25 Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went from Caesarea to Jerusalem, ² where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders brought their charges against Paul. They begged Festus ³ to do them the favor of having Paul come to Jerusalem, for they had made a plot to kill him on the way. ⁴ Festus answered, “Paul is being kept a prisoner in Caesarea, and I myself will be going back there soon. ⁵ Let your leaders go to Caesarea with me and accuse the man if he has done anything wrong.”

⁶ Festus spent another eight or ten days with them and then went to Caesarea. On the next day he sat down in the judgment court and ordered Paul to be brought in. ⁷ When Paul arrived, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem stood around him and started making many serious charges against him, which they were not able to prove. ⁸ But Paul defended himself: “I have done nothing wrong against the Law of the Jews or against the Temple or against the Roman Emperor.”

⁹ But Festus wanted to gain favor with the Jews, so he asked Paul, “Would you be willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges before me there?”

¹⁰ Paul said, “I am standing before the Emperor's own judgment court, where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you yourself well know. ¹¹ If I have broken the law and done something for which I deserve the death penalty, I do not ask to escape it. But if there is no truth in the charges they bring against me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to the Emperor.”

¹² Then Festus, after conferring with his advisers, answered, “You have appealed to the Emperor, so to the Emperor you will go.”

Paul before Agrippa and Bernice

¹³ Some time later King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to pay a visit of welcome to Festus. ¹⁴ After they had been there several days, Festus explained Paul's situation to the king: “There is a man here who was left a prisoner by Felix; ¹⁵ and when I went to Jerusalem, the Jewish chief priests and elders brought charges against him and asked me to condemn him. ¹⁶ But I told them that we Romans are not in the habit of handing over any who are accused of a crime before they have met their accusers face-to-face and have had the chance of defending themselves against the accusation. ¹⁷ When they came here, then, I lost no time, but on the very next day I sat in the judgment court and ordered the man to be brought in. ¹⁸ His opponents stood up, but they did not accuse him of any of the evil crimes that I thought they would. ¹⁹ All they had were some arguments with him about their own religion and about a man named Jesus, who has died; but Paul claims that he is alive. ²⁰ I was undecided about how I could get information on these matters, so I asked Paul if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges. ²¹ But Paul appealed; he asked to be kept under guard and to let the Emperor decide his case. So I gave orders for him to be kept under guard until I could send him to the Emperor.”

²² Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man myself.”

“You will hear him tomorrow,” Festus answered.

²³ The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and ceremony and entered the audience hall with the military chiefs and the leading men of the city. Festus gave the order, and Paul was brought in. ²⁴ Festus said, “King Agrippa and all who are here with us: You see this man against whom all the Jewish people, both here and in Jerusalem, have brought complaints to me. They scream that he should not live any longer. ²⁵ But I could not find that he had done anything for which he deserved the death sentence. And since he himself made an appeal to the Emperor, I have decided to send him. ²⁶ But I have nothing definite about him to write to the Emperor. So I have brought him here before you—and especially before you, King Agrippa!—so that, after investigating his case, I may have something to write. ²⁷ For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without clearly indicating the charges against him.”

A Prayer for Protection^[a]

¹⁹ Help your relatives and they will protect you like a strong city wall,^[a] but if you quarrel with them, they will close their doors to you.