6 This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will live in a foreign country, where they will be slaves and will be badly treated for four hundred years.
7 But I will pass judgment on the people that they will serve, and afterward your descendants will come out of that country and will worship me in this place.’
8 Then God gave to Abraham the ceremony of circumcision as a sign of the covenant. So Abraham circumcised Isaac a week after he was born; Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons, the famous ancestors of our race.
9 “Jacob's sons became jealous of their brother Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him
10 and brought him safely through all his troubles. When Joseph appeared before the king of Egypt, God gave him a pleasing manner and wisdom, and the king made Joseph governor over the country and the royal household.
11 Then there was a famine all over Egypt and Canaan, which caused much suffering. Our ancestors could not find any food,
12 and when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, on their first visit there.