Acts 7:6
New International Version
God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.

New Living Translation
God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.

English Standard Version
And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.

Berean Standard Bible
God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

Berean Literal Bible
But God spoke thus, that his seed will be a sojourner in a strange land, and they will enslave it, and will mistreat it four hundred years.

King James Bible
And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

New King James Version
But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years.

New American Standard Bible
But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE STRANGERS IN A LAND THAT WAS NOT THEIRS, AND THEY WOULD ENSLAVE AND MISTREAT THEM FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

NASB 1995
“But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

NASB 1977
“But God spoke to this effect, that his OFFSPRING WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

Legacy Standard Bible
But God spoke in this way, that his SEED WOULD BE SOJOURNERS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

Amplified Bible
And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS (strangers) IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

Christian Standard Bible
God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them 400 years.

American Standard Version
And God spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them ill, four hundred years.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And God was speaking with him when he said to him, 'Your seed will be a stranger in a foreign land, and they will enslave him and will afflict him four hundred years;'

Contemporary English Version
God said Abraham's descendants would live for a while in a foreign land. There they would be slaves and would be mistreated 400 years.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And God said to him: That his seed should sojourn in a strange country, and that they should bring them under bondage, and treat them evil four hundred years.

English Revised Version
And God spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil, four hundred years.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
God told Abraham that his descendants would be foreigners living in another country and that the people there would make them slaves and mistreat them for 400 years.

Good News Translation
This is what God said to him: 'Your descendants will live in a foreign country, where they will be slaves and will be badly treated for four hundred years.

International Standard Version
"This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years.

Literal Standard Version
And God spoke thus, that his seed will be sojourning in a strange land, and they will cause it to serve, and will do it evil [for] four hundred years.

Majority Standard Bible
God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

New American Bible
And God spoke thus, ‘His descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years;

NET Bible
But God spoke as follows: 'Your descendants will be foreigners in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years.

New Revised Standard Version
And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years.

New Heart English Bible
God spoke in this way, that his 'descendants would live as foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

Webster's Bible Translation
And God spoke on this wise, That his offspring should sojourn in a foreign land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them ill four hundred years.

Weymouth New Testament
And God declared that Abraham's posterity should for four hundred years make their home in a country not their own, and be reduced to slavery and be oppressed.

World English Bible
God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

Young's Literal Translation
'And God spake thus, That his seed shall be sojourning in a strange land, and they shall cause it to serve, and shall do it evil four hundred years,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Stephen's Address to the Sanhedrin
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. 6 God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’…

Cross References
Genesis 15:13
Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

Exodus 3:10
Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt."

Exodus 12:40
Now the duration of the Israelites' stay in Egypt was 430 years.

Galatians 3:17
What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.


Treasury of Scripture

And God spoke on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

That.

Genesis 15:13,16
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; …

four.

Exodus 12:40,41
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years…

Galatians 3:17
And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

Jump to Previous
Abraham's Aliens Belonging Bondage Cause Country Cruel Declared Enslave Enslaved Entreat Evil Foreign Four Home Hundred Ill Ill-Treat Live Mistreated Offspring Oppressed Others Posterity Reduced Seed Servants Serve Slavery Sojourn Sojourning Strange Treat Way Wise
Jump to Next
Abraham's Aliens Belonging Bondage Cause Country Cruel Declared Enslave Enslaved Entreat Evil Foreign Four Home Hundred Ill Ill-Treat Live Mistreated Offspring Oppressed Others Posterity Reduced Seed Servants Serve Slavery Sojourn Sojourning Strange Treat Way Wise
Acts 7
1. Stephen, permitted to answer to the accusation of blasphemy,
2. shows that Abraham worshipped God rightly, and how God chose the fathers,
20. before Moses was born, and before the tabernacle and temple were built;
37. that Moses himself witnessed of Christ;
44. and that all outward ceremonies were ordained to last but for a time;
51. reprehending their rebellion, and murdering of Christ, whom the prophets foretold.
54. Whereupon they stone Stephen to death,
59. who commends his soul to Jesus, and humbly prays for them.














(6) And that they should bring them into bondage . . .--Here again there is another apparent discrepancy of detail. Taking the common computation, the interval between the covenant with Abraham and that with Moses was 430 years (Galatians 3:17), of which only 215 are reckoned as spent in Egypt. The Israelites were indeed sojourners in a strange land for the whole 430 years, but the history shows that they were not in bondage nor evil entreated till the Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph. The chronological difficulty, however, lies in reconciling St. Paul's statement in Galatians 3:17 with the language of Genesis 15:13, which gives 400 years as the sojourning in Egypt, and Exodus 12:40, which gives 430, and with which St. Stephen is in substantial agreement. St. Paul appears to have followed the LXX. reading of Exodus 12:40, which inserts "in the land of Cannan," and in some MSS. "they and their fathers," and with this the Samaritan Pentateuch agrees. Josephus varies, in some passages (Ant. ii. 15, ? 2), giving 215 years; in others (Ant. ii. 9, ? 1; Wars, v. 9, ? 4), 400. All that can be said is, as before, that chronological accuracy did not affect the argument in either case. It was enough for St. Stephen, as for St. Paul, to accept this or that system of dates, as they had been taught, without inquiring into the grounds on which it rested. Such inquiries were foreign to the Jewish character generally, and above all to that character when possessed by the sense of new and divine realities. Round numbers were enough for them to mark the successive stages of God's dealings with His people.

Verse 6. - In a strange land; a land belonging to some one else (Hebrews 11:9, γῆ ἀλλοτρία, as here); a land in which he had none inheritance, not yet become the possession of his seed; for as the writer to the Hebrews says, he dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob; not applicable, therefore, in the first instance to Egypt at all. And this sojourning as strangers and pilgrims lasted altogether four hundred and thirty years, vie. two hundred and fifteen years in Canaan, and two hundred and fifteen in Egypt; which agrees exactly with St. Paul's reckoning in round numbers of four hundred years from the giving of the promise to Abraham to the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai (Galatians 3:17). The "four hundred years" must not be taken in connection with the bondage" and the ill treatment which characterized the last half of the period, but as spoken of the whole period during which they had not possession of the promised land. Bring them into bondage. So the LXX.; but the Hebrew, as rendered in the A.V., has "and they shall serve them." But some (see Gesenius, 'Thes.') render the Hebrew as the LXX. Do. Four hundred years. This is a round number, as in Genesis 15:13. The exact time, as given in Exodus 12:40, 41, was four hundred and thirty years.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
God
Θεὸς (Theos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

told [him]
ἐλάλησεν (elalēsen)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2980: A prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb; to talk, i.e. Utter words.

that
ὅτι (hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

his
αὐτοῦ (autou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

descendants
σπέρμα (sperma)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4690: From speiro; something sown, i.e. Seed; by implication, offspring; specially, a remnant.

would be
ἔσται (estai)
Verb - Future Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

foreigners
πάροικον (paroikon)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3941: Foreign, alien, subst: a foreigner, sojourner. From para and oikos; having a home near, i.e. a by-dweller.

in
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

a strange
ἀλλοτρίᾳ (allotria)
Adjective - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 245: From allos; another's, i.e. Not one's own; by extension foreign, not akin, hostile.

land,
γῇ (gē)
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1093: Contracted from a primary word; soil; by extension a region, or the solid part or the whole of the terrene globe.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

they would be enslaved
δουλώσουσιν (doulōsousin)
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 1402: To enslave. From doulos; to enslave.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

mistreated
κακώσουσιν (kakōsousin)
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 2559: To treat badly, afflict, embitter, make angry. From kakos; to injure; figuratively, to exasperate.

four hundred
τετρακόσια (tetrakosia)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 5071: Four hundred. Plural from tessares and hekaton; four hundred.

years.
ἔτη (etē)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 2094: A year. Apparently a primary word; a year.


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NT Apostles: Acts 7:6 God spoke in this way: that his (Acts of the Apostles Ac)
Acts 7:5
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