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1Sing the praises of our ancestors,
those famous men
who lived long ago.
2The Lord gave them honor
and showed them his power
from the very first.
3Some of them were kings
or were famous
for their courage.
Some gave wise advice
or spoke messages from God.
4There were leaders
who made good decisions,
who learned the wisdom
passed down by our people,
and who taught it to others.
5Some of our ancestors
wrote poetry or music;
6others were rich and powerful,
but lived in peace.
7All these men
were highly honored
in their own time;
8their reputations live on,
and even today
they still are praised.
9Others of our people
are best forgotten,
as if they and their descendants
had never been born.
10But the ancestors we praise
were faithful to God,
and so we will remember
their good deeds.
11Their good name
has been handed down,
generation by generation,
12to those who follow them
in being faithful
to their agreement with God.
*
13Their families will live on,
and each new generation
will honor these ancestors,
14even though their bodies
were long ago laid to rest.
15Israel praises them,
and other nations still tell
about their wisdom.
16Enoch turned to the Lord[#Gn 5.23,24; He 11.5; Jd 14.]
and became an example
for all time,
and the Lord was so pleased
that he took Enoch to heaven.
17Noah was perfectly loyal to God.[#Gn 6.9—9.18.]
And so when God in his anger
sent the flood
to sweep humans from the earth,
he spared Noah's life.
18And God made an agreement
with him—
never again will such a flood
destroy all living creatures.
19No one is more famous[#Gn 15.1—17.27; 22.1-18.]
than Abraham, the great ancestor
of many nations.
20He obeyed the Law
of God Most High
and made an agreement with God
that left a mark on his body.
And when tested by the Lord,
Abraham remained faithful.
21And so, the Lord promised
that Abraham's descendants
would be more numerous
than the stars in the sky
or specks of dust on earth.
All nations would be blessed
by his descendants,
and they would be given land
from sea to sea,
and from the Euphrates River
to the end of the earth.
*
22God later made the same promise[#Gn 17.19; 26.3-5; 27.28; 28.14.]
to Isaac, the son of Abraham.
God's agreement and promise
then came to Jacob—
all people would be blessed
by his descendants,
23and God would bless him
and give him land to be divided
among the twelve tribes.
One of Jacob's descendants
was faithful to the Lord
and pleasing to everyone;