Acts 7:2-16

2“Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

3and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.

4“Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living.

5He didn’t give him an inheritance in it — not even a foot of ground — but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.

6God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.

7I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.

8And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

9“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him

10and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.

11Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food.

12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time.

13The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

14Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,

15and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,

16were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.