3
God told him, ‘Leave your homeland and kin, and go to the land that I will show you.'
4
So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God had him resettle in this land where you now live.
5
God didn't give him an inheritance here, not even a square foot of land. However, God did promise to give the land as his possession to him and to his descendants, even though Abraham had no child.
6
God put it this way: His descendants will be strangers in a land that belongs to others, who will enslave them and abuse them for four hundred years.
7
And I will condemn the nation they serve as slaves, God said, and afterward they will leave that land and serve me in this place.
8
God gave him the covenant confirmed through circumcision. Accordingly, eight days after Isaac's birth, Abraham circumcised him. Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs.
9
“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into slavery in Egypt. God was with him, however,
10
and rescued him from all his troubles. The grace and wisdom he gave Joseph were recognized by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole palace.
11
A famine came upon all Egypt and Canaan, and great hardship came with it. Our ancestors had nothing to eat.
12
When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time.
13
During their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family.