1. Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
2. And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
3. And said to him, Depart from thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
4. Then he came from the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran. And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land in which ye now dwell.
5. And he gave him no inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when as yet he had no child.
6. And God spoke on this wise, That his offspring should sojourn in a foreign land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them ill four hundred years.
7. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that they shall come forth, and serve me in this place.
8. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
9. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
10. And delivered him from all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt, and all his house.