12 “The number of people living on earth began to increase, and the number of families, tribes, and nations grew. They soon fell into sin and were worse than the generations before them.
13 But then you chose Abraham.
14 You loved him, and to him alone in the dead of night you secretly disclosed how the world would end.
15 You made an everlasting covenant with him and promised him that you would never abandon his descendants. You gave him Isaac, and to Isaac you gave Jacob and Esau.
16 You chose Jacob, and his descendants became a great nation, but you rejected Esau.
17 “You rescued the descendants of Jacob from Egypt and led them to Mount Sinai.
18 There you bent down the skies, shook the earth, moved the world, made the water beneath the earth tremble, and brought disorder to the universe.