¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he endured God’s testing, offered his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice. The one who had received God’s promise was willing to offer his only son; ¹⁸ God had told him, “It is through Isaac that your descendants will bear your name,”^{[a] 19} and he concluded that God was capable of raising him from the dead, which, figuratively, is indeed what happened.

²⁰ By faith Isaac spoke blessings upon his sons, Jacob and Esau, concerning things yet to come.

²¹ By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed the sons of his son Joseph, bowing in worship as he leaned upon his staff.^[b]

²² By faith Joseph, at his life’s end, predicted that the children of Israel would make an exodus from Egypt; and he gave instructions that his bones be buried in the land they would someday reach.

²³ By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw that he was handsome; and they did not fear Pharaoh’s directive that all male Hebrew children were to be slain.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be identified solely as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter ²⁵ and chose instead to share the sufferings of the people of God, not just living in sin and ease for a time. ²⁶ He considered the abuse that he and the people of God had suffered in anticipation of the Anointed One more valuable than all the riches of Egypt because he looked ahead to the coming reward.

²⁷ By faith Moses left Egypt, unafraid of Pharaoh’s wrath and moving forward as though he could see the invisible God. ²⁸ Through faith, he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of blood on the doorposts among the Hebrews so that the destroyer of the firstborn would pass over their homes without harming them. ²⁹ By faith the people crossed through the Red Sea as if they were walking on dry land, although the pursuing Egyptian soldiers were drowned when they tried to follow.

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho toppled after the people had circled them for seven days. ³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab welcomed the Hebrew spies into her home so that she did not perish with the unbelievers.