¹⁷ The God of this people Isra’el chose our fathers. He made the people great during the time when they were living as aliens in Egypt and with a stretched-out arm he led them out of that land.^{[a] 18} For some forty years^[b] he took care of them in the desert, ¹⁹ and after he had destroyed seven nations^[c] in the land of Kena‘an he gave their land to his people as an inheritance.