Acts 7

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

2Stephen said, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

3and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I will show you.’

4Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land where you are now living.

5He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but he promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.

6God spoke in this way: ‘His descendants will be foreigners in a land that belongs to others, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

7But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’

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

9The patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. But God was with him

10and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and over all his household.

11Then a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could find no food.

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

13On their second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

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

15So Jacob went down to Egypt, and there he and our ancestors died.

16Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

17As the time drew near for the promise God had made to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

18until another king came to power over Egypt who did not know about Joseph.

19He dealt deceitfully with our people and mistreated our ancestors, forcing them to abandon their infants so that they would not survive.

20At that time Moses was born, and he was a beautiful child in God’s sight. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house,

21and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.

22Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and deeds.

23When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

24When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his defense and took revenge for the man who was being abused by striking down the Egyptian.

25He assumed his own people would understand that God was giving them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

26The next day he came upon two of them as they were fighting and tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you hurting each other?’

27But the man who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

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

29When he heard this, Moses fled and became a foreigner 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 near Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he went closer to look, 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 and did not dare to look.

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

34I have surely seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and 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 when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this is the man God sent as both ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36He led them out, doing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

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

38He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living words to pass on to us.

39But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt.

40They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go ahead of us. As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

41That was when they made a calf, brought a sacrifice to the idol, and celebrated what their own hands had made.

42But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring me slaughtered animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?

43You took along the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images you made to worship. So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

44Our ancestors had the tent of witness in the wilderness. It was made just as the one who spoke to Moses directed, according to the pattern he had seen.

45Our ancestors received it in their turn and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land from the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. It remained until the time of David,

46who found favor with God and asked that he himself might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

47But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

48Yet the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says,

49‘Heaven 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 heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit. You are just like your ancestors.

52Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who announced long ago the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

53You received the law as delivered by angels, yet you have not kept it.”

54When they heard these things, they were furious and ground their teeth at him.

55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently 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!”

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

58They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

60Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.