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.
19. The dazzling light of your presence passed through the four gates of fire, earthquake, wind, and frost, in order to give the Law and its commandments to Jacob's descendants, the people of Israel.
20. Yet you did not remove their evil impulse, but let your Law guide their lives.
21. The first man, Adam, weighed down with an evil impulse, sinned and was defeated, and the same was true of all his descendants.
22. So the disease became permanent, and although the Law was in the hearts of the people, so also was the root of evil! That is why what was good passed away, while what was evil continued.
23. “Many years later you sent your servant David
24. and told him to build a city which would bear your name and in which sacrifices would be offered to you.