7

¹Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

²And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,[ † ]Acts 22:1Psalms 29:31 Corinthians 2:8Genesis 11:31-32 ³and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’[ † ]Genesis 12:1 ⁴So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living.[ † ]Genesis 11:31Genesis 15:7Hebrews 11:8-10Genesis 11:32

⁵He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.[ † ]Genesis 12:7Genesis 13:15Genesis 15:3-18Genesis 17:8Genesis 26:3 ⁶God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.[ † ]Genesis 15:13-14, 16Genesis 47:11-12Exodus 1:8-14Exodus 12:40-41Galatians 3:17 ⁷‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’[ † ]Genesis 15:14Exodus 14:13-31Exodus 3:12Joshua 3:1-17

⁸Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and 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.[ † ]Genesis 17:9-14Genesis 21:1-5Genesis 25:21-26Genesis 29:31-30:24Genesis 35:18-22-26

⁹Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him[ † ]Genesis 37:4-11, 28Psalms 105:17Genesis 37:28Genesis 39:2-21, 23 ¹⁰and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.[ † ]Genesis 41:38-44

¹¹Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.[ † ]Genesis 41:54Genesis 42:5 ¹²When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.[ † ]Genesis 42:1-2 ¹³On their second visit, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh.[ † ]Genesis 45:4-16 ¹⁴Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.[ † ]Genesis 45:9-27Genesis 46:26-27Deuteronomy 10:22

¹⁵So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.[ † ]Genesis 46:1-7Genesis 49:33Exodus 1:6 ¹⁶Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.[ † ]Genesis 50:13Exodus 13:19Joshua 24:32Genesis 23:16

¹⁷As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number.[ † ]Genesis 15:13Exodus 2:23-25Acts 7:6-7Exodus 1:7-9Psalms 105:24-25 ¹⁸Then another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt.[ † ]Exodus 1:8 ¹⁹He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.[ † ]Exodus 1:22

²⁰At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house.[ † ]Exodus 2:1-2Hebrews 11:23 ²¹When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.[ † ]Exodus 2:3-4Exodus 2:5-10 ²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.[ † ]Luke 24:19

²³When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.[ † ]Exodus 2:11-12Hebrews 11:24-26 ²⁴And when he saw one of them being mistreated, Moses went to his defense and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian who was oppressing him. ²⁵He assumed his brothers would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not.

²⁶The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’

²⁷But the man who was abusing his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?[ † ]Exodus 2:14Luke 12:14Acts 7:35 ²⁸Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons.[ † ]Hebrews 11:27Exodus 2:15-21, 22Exodus 4:20Exodus 18:3

³⁰After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.[ † ]Exodus 3:1-10Isaiah 63:9 ³¹When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him: ³²‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.[ † ]Exodus 3:6-15Matthew 22:32Hebrews 11:16

³³Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.[ † ]Exodus 3:5-7, 8, 10 ³⁴I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’[ † ]Exodus 2:24-25Psalms 105:26

³⁵This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.[ † ]Exodus 2:14Acts 7:27Exodus 14:21 ³⁶He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.[ † ]Exodus 12:41Exodus 33:1Deuteronomy 6:21-23Hebrews 8:9Exodus 7:8-9Deuteronomy 6:22Psalms 105:27John 4:48Exodus 14:21Exodus 16:1-35Numbers 14:33Psalms 95:8-10Acts 7:42Acts 13:18Hebrews 3:8

³⁷This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’[ † ]Deuteronomy 18:15-18, 19Acts 3:22Matthew 17:5 ³⁸He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.[ † ]Exodus 19:3Isaiah 63:9Galatians 3:19Hebrews 2:2Exodus 21:1Deuteronomy 5:27John 1:17Romans 3:2Hebrews 5:121 Peter 4:11

³⁹But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.[ † ]Psalms 95:8-11 ⁴⁰They said to Aaron, ‘Make 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.’[ † ]Exodus 32:1-23

⁴¹At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.[ † ]Exodus 32:2-4Deuteronomy 9:16Psalms 106:19Exodus 32:6-18, 19

⁴⁴Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.[ † ]Exodus 25:40Hebrews 8:5 ⁴⁵And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David,[ † ]Deuteronomy 32:49Joshua 3:14Joshua 18:1Joshua 23:9Nehemiah 9:24Psalms 44:22 Samuel 6:2-15 ⁴⁶who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.[ † ]2 Samuel 7:1-131 Kings 8:171 Chronicles 22:7Psalms 132:4-5 ⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.[ † ]1 Kings 6:1-381 Kings 8:20-212 Chronicles 3:1-17

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:[ † ]1 Kings 8:272 Chronicles 2:6Acts 17:24

⁵¹You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.[ † ]Exodus 32:9Isaiah 6:10Leviticus 26:41 ⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—[ † ]2 Chronicles 36:16Matthew 21:35Matthew 23:351 Thessalonians 2:15Acts 3:14Acts 22:141 John 2:1 ⁵³you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”[ † ]Exodus 20:1Deuteronomy 33:2Acts 7:38Galatians 3:19Hebrews 2:2

⁵⁴On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him.[ † ]Acts 5:33 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.[ † ]Matthew 5:8Matthew 16:28Mark 9:1Luke 9:27Acts 6:5Exodus 24:17 ⁵⁶“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”[ † ]Matthew 3:16Daniel 7:13

⁵⁷At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him. ⁵⁸They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.[ † ]Acts 22:20

⁵⁹While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”[ † ]Psalms 31:5 ⁶⁰Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.[ † ]Matthew 5:44Luke 23:34