Heroes of Israel's past
and by their knowledge of the nation's law;
out of their fund of wisdom they gave instruction.
5   Some were composers of music or writers of poetry.
6   Others were endowed with wealth and strength,
living peacefully in their homes.
7   All these won fame in their own generation
and were the pride of their times.
8   Some there are who have left a name behind them
to be commemorated in story.
9   There are others who are unremembered;
they are dead, and it is as though they had never existed,
as though they had never been born
or left children to succeed them.
10   Not so our forefathers; they were men of loyalty,
whose good deeds have never been forgotten.
11   Their prosperity is handed on to their descendants,
and their inheritance to future generations. ^note
12   Thanks to them their children are within the covenants—
the whole race of their descendants.
13   Their line will endure for all time,
and their fame will never be blotted out.
14   Their bodies are buried in peace,
but their name lives for ever.
15   Nations will recount their wisdom,
and God's people will sing their praises.


16   Enoch pleased the Lord and was carried off to heaven,
an example of repentance to future generations.
17   Noah was found perfect and righteous,
and thus he made amends in the time of retribution;
therefore a remnant survived on the earth,
when the flood came.
18   A perpetual covenant was established with him,
that never again should all life be swept away by a flood.


19   Great Abraham was the father of many nations;
no one has ever been found to equal him in fame.
20   He kept the law of the Most High;

Heroes of Israel's past
he entered into covenant with him,
setting upon his body the mark of the covenant;
and, when he was tested, he proved faithful.
21   Therefore the Lord swore an oath to him,
that nations should find blessing through his descendants,
that his family should be countless as the dust of the earth
and be raised as high as the stars,
and that their possessions should reach from sea to sea,
from the Great River to the ends of the earth.


22   To Isaac he made the same promise
for the sake of his father Abraham,
a blessing for all mankind and a covenant;
23   and so he transmitted them to Jacob.
He confirmed him in the blessings he had received
and gave him the land he was to inherit,
dividing it into portions,
which he allotted to the twelve tribes.

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