8. God made an agreement with Abraham, the sign of which 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 twelve ancestors of our people.
9. “Jacob’s sons became jealous of Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him
10. and saved him from all his troubles. The king of Egypt liked Joseph and respected him because of the wisdom God gave him. The king made him governor of Egypt and put him in charge of all the people in his palace.
11. “Then all the land of Egypt and Canaan became so dry that nothing would grow, and the people suffered very much. Jacob’s sons, our ancestors, could not find anything to eat.
12. But when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent his sons there. This was their first trip to Egypt.
13. When they went there a second time, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and the king learned about Joseph’s family.
14. Then Joseph sent messengers to invite Jacob, his father, to come to Egypt along with all his relatives (seventy-five 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 Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.)
17. “The promise God made to Abraham was soon to come true, and the number of people in Egypt grew large.
18. Then a new king, who did not know who Joseph was, began to rule Egypt.