Acts 7

¹Then the High Priest asked, “Is this how things are?”

²And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, ³and said to him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him into this land where you are now living. ⁵Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s breadth of ground; instead, he promised to give it to him as a permanent possession, and to his offspring after him, even though he had no child. ⁶But God spoke in this way: ‘His offspring will be resident aliens in a foreign land, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷And I will bring to justice the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and after these things they will come out and they will worship me in this place.’ ⁸And God gave him the covenant of circumcision. In this way, Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into Egypt. But God was with him ¹⁰and rescued him out of all his afflictions. He gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him governor over Egypt and over his entire household. ¹¹Then a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, along with great affliction, and our fathers could find no sustenance. ¹²But when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. ¹³During the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family origin became clear to Pharaoh. ¹⁴Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to join him—seventy-five people in all. ¹⁵So Jacob went down to Egypt. There he died, as did our fathers, ¹⁶and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷As the time drew near for the promise God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸until another king arose over Egypt who had no knowledge of Joseph. ¹⁹This king dealt craftily with our race and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so that they would not survive. ²⁰It was at this time that Moses was born, and he was divinely beautiful. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house; ²¹but when he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and nurtured him as her own son. ²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³When he was approaching forty years of age, it entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. ²⁴Seeing one of them being mistreated, he defended him and took vengeance for the one being oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵He supposed his brothers would understand that God was giving them deliverance through his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them to peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why are you mistreating one another?’ ²⁷But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸Do you want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹At this remark, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn-bush. ³¹When Moses saw it, he was astonished at the vision. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came: ³²‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble with fear and did not dare to look. ³³Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where 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 rescue them. Now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

³⁵This Moses—whom they rejected by saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?’—this very man God sent as both ruler and liberator, 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, 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 like me from among your brothers.’ ³⁸This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; he received living oracles to give to us.

³⁹Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him; instead, they pushed him aside and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ ⁴¹They made a calf-idol in those days, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and began to celebrate the works of their own hands. ⁴²But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, just as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ⁴³You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images you made to worship. Therefore I will deport you beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, just as the one speaking to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵Our fathers in turn received it and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the nations that God drove out before our fathers, until the days of David. ⁴⁶David found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built a house for him. ⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in shrines made by human hands; as the prophet says: ⁴⁹‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is a 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 are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing exactly what your fathers did. ⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They even killed those who announced in advance the coming of the Just One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered— ⁵³you who received the law as ordained by angels, yet did not keep it!”

⁵⁴When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and began grinding their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶He said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷They let out a loud cry, covered their ears, and rushed at him with one purpose. ⁵⁸They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹As they were stoning him, Stephen called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰Then he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he fell asleep.