Acts 7

1Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

2And he said, “Brothers and fathers, listen: the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.”

3And he said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred, and come into the land that I will show you.’

4Then, after he had gone out from the land of the Chaldeans, he settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God moved him into this land in which you now live,

5And he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

6But God spoke in this way: that his offspring would be a foreign resident in a strange land, and they would enslave it and mistreat it for four hundred years.

7And I will judge the nation that they will serve, God said, and after these things they will come out and worship me in this place.

8And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

9And the patriarchs, being jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; and God was with him,

10and rescued him from all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, and appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

11A famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great distress, and our fathers could not find food.

12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time.

13And on the second visit Joseph was recognized by his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

14Then Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five persons in all.

15And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers.

16and they were carried over to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a price of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

17But as the time of the promise that God had made to Abraham was drawing near, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

18until another king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

19This man, having dealt shrewdly with our people, mistreated our fathers, causing their infants to be exposed so that they would not be kept alive.

20At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. He was brought up for three months in his father's house.

21But when he had been exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and raised him as her own son.

22And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

23When he was approaching forty years of age, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

24And when he saw someone being wronged, he defended him and brought justice for the one being oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.

25He supposed that his brothers understood that God was giving them deliverance through his hand, but they did not understand.

26And on the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting and was trying to reconcile them to peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you wronging one another?’

27But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?’

28Do you want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

29So Moses fled at this word, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

30And after forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire from a bush.

31When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. And as he came near to look closely, a voice of the Lord came:

32I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Then Moses became terrified and did not dare to look closely.

33Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’

34I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.

35This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

37This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me.’

38This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; he received living oracles to give to us.

39Our fathers were unwilling to become obedient to him, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

40saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will go before us, for this Moses, who led us out from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’

41And in those days they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, and they were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

42But God turned away and gave them over to serve the host of heaven, just as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you offer to me slain offerings and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?’

43And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images that you made to worship them, and I will deport you beyond Babylon.

44The tent of testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, just as the one speaking to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,

45which our fathers in turn brought in with Joshua at the dispossession of the nations that God drove out from before our fathers, until the days of David.

46who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

47But Solomon built a house for him.

48But the Most High does not dwell in things made by hands, just as the prophet says:

49Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?

50Did not my hand make all these things?

51You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

52Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers,

53you who received the law as delivered by angels, and did not keep it.

54When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and gnashed their teeth at him.

55But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

56And he said, “Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

57But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears and rushed together at him,

58And after they had driven him out of the city, they were stoning him. And the witnesses laid their outer garments at the feet of a young man called Saul.

59And they were stoning Stephen as he called out and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

60Then, kneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And after saying this, he fell asleep.