8. God made an agreement with Abraham; the sign for this agreement was circumcision. And so when Abraham had his son Isaac, Abraham circumcised him when he was eight days old. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob. And Jacob did the same for his sons, the 12 ancestors of our people.
9. “These sons became jealous of Joseph. They sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him.
10. Joseph had many troubles there, but God saved him from all those troubles. The king of Egypt liked Joseph and respected him because of the wisdom that God gave him. The king made him governor of Egypt. He put Joseph in charge of all the people in his palace.
11. “Then all the land of Egypt and of Canaan became so dry that nothing would grow there. This made the people suffer very much. The sons could not find anything to eat.
12. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, there. This was their first trip to Egypt.
13. Then they went there a second time. This time, Joseph told his brothers who he was. And the king learned about Joseph’s family.
14. Then Joseph sent some men to invite Jacob, his father, to come to Egypt. He also invited all his relatives (75 persons altogether).
15. So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and his sons died.
16. Later their bodies were moved to Shechem and put in a grave there. (It was the same grave that Abraham had bought in Shechem from the sons of Hamor for a sum of money.)
17. “The number of people in Egypt grew large. There were more and more of our people there. (The promise that God made to Abraham was soon to come true.)
18. Then a new king began to rule Egypt. He did not know who Joseph was.
19. This king tricked our people and was cruel to our ancestors. He forced them to put their babies outside to die.
20. This was the time when Moses was born. He was a fine child. For three months Moses was cared for in his father’s house.
21. When they put Moses outside, the king’s daughter took him. She raised him as if he were her own son.
22. The Egyptians taught Moses all the things they knew. He was a powerful man in the things he said and did.
23. “When Moses was about 40 years old, he thought it would be good to visit his brothers, the people of Israel.
24. Moses saw an Egyptian doing wrong to a Jew. So he defended the Jew and punished the Egyptian for hurting him. Moses killed the Egyptian.
25. Moses thought that his fellow Jews would understand that God was using him to save them. But they did not understand.
26. The next day, Moses saw two Jewish men fighting. He tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why are you hurting each other?’