Acts 7
1 Then the high priest said, Are these things so?
2 And Stephen said, Men, brethren, and fathers, listen; The God of glory
appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he
dwelled in Charran,
3 And said to him, Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and come
into the land which I shall show you.
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelled in Charran:
and from there, when his father was dead, God removed him into this land,
wherein you now dwell.
5 And He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot
on: yet He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his
seed after him, when as yet He had no child.
6 And God spoke in this way, That his seed should be a foreigner in a
strange land (belonging
to someone else);
and that they should bring them into bondage and enslave and mistreat them
for four hundred years.
7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage I will judge, said
God: and after that shall they come forth (out of the
land of Egypt),
and serve me in this place.
8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac
and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat
the twelve patriarchs.
9 And the patriarchs, (being) moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but
God was with him,
10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and
wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over
Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and there
was great affliction: and our fathers found no food.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our
fathers first.
13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and
Joseph's family was made known to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent and called
his father Jacob to him, and all his family, seventy-five people in all.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and (all)
our fathers (as
well),
16 And were carried over into Sychem and laid in the tomb that Abraham
bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.
17 But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to
Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
18 Till another king arose, who did not know Joseph.
19 The same dealt treacherously with our people, and mistreated our fathers,
so that they abandoned their young children, that they might not survive.
20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding beautiful (to
God),
and nurtured in his father's house for three months:
21 And when he was set outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nurtured
him as her own son.
22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was
mighty in words and in deeds.
23 And when he was a full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit
his brethren, the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and defended him
that was oppressed, and killed the Egyptian:
25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his
hand would deliver them, but they did not understand.
26 And the next day he appeared to them as they quarreled, and urged them to
have peace, saying, Sirs, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?
27 But the one who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, Who made
you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Will you kill me, as you did the Egyptian yesterday?
29 Then Moses fled at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian,
where he begat two sons.
30 And when forty years had gone by, there appeared to him in the wilderness
of Mount Sinai a messenger of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to
behold it, the voice of the LORD came to him,
32 Saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and dared not look.
33 Then the Lord said to him, Take off your shoes from your feet: for the
place where you stand is holy ground.
34 Having seen, I saw the affliction of My people that are in Egypt, and
(hearing) I have heard their groaning, and have come down to deliver them. And
now come, I will send you into Egypt.
35 This same Moses whom they refused (and
rejected),
saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a
ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the messenger that appeared to him in
the bush.
36 He brought them out, after He had demonstrated wonders and signs in the
land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, A prophet
shall the Lord your God raise up to you of your brethren, (who
is)
like to me (in
humanity); Him shall you hear (as
the voice of God).
38 This is he (Moses), that was in the congregation in the
wilderness with the messenger who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our
fathers: who received the living oracles (of God)
to give to us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in
their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: because as for this Moses,
which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of
him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol,
and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 But God turned (away,
hiding His face),
and gave them up to serve the host of heaven (the
sun, moon, and the stars);
as it is written in the book of the prophets, O you house of Israel, have
you offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in
the wilderness (though
your hearts were far from Me)?
43 And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of the god
Remphan, figures which you made (to
yourself) to worship them: and it will carry you away
beyond Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, as the
One had given instructions, speaking to Moses, that he should make it (exactly)
according to the pattern (of the heavenly) that he had seen.
45 Which (tabernacle) also our fathers that came after brought in
with Joshua in taking the possession of the
Gentile
nations, whom God drove out from before the face of our fathers, until the
days of David;
46 Who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God
of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built Him a house.
48 However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with (man’s)
hands, as the prophet said,
49 Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool: what house will you build
for Me? said the Lord: or what is the place of My rest?
50 Has not My hand made all these things?
51 You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist
the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.
52 Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? But they have
killed (all) them, who showed (prophesying)
before the coming of the Just One (Jesus
Christ);
of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law (from the
Lord)
by the ministration of angels and have not kept it.
54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they
gnashed on him with their teeth (like
wild beasts).
55 But Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up continuously into
heaven, and saw the glory of God, even Jesus standing on the right hand of
God,
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened (to
mankind), and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
57 Then they cried out loudly (in angst),
and stopped their ears, and rushed at him simultaneously,
58 And drove him out of the city and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down
their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, (as
he was) calling on God, and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit.
60 And he knelt down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not lay this
sin to their charge (but
to the death that animates them).
And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
