Acts 7:1-10 ▼

1 Then said the high priest, are these things so?

2 Stephen answer'd, my brethren, and you my fathers, lend your attention. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

3 and said to him, quit your country, and your kindred, to go to the land which I shall shew thee.

4 thereupon he went out of Chaldea, and dwelt in Charran: from thence, after his father's death, he removed him to this very country where you now dwell.

5 he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of land: yet he promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his posterity after him, tho' he had then no child.

6 God declar'd likewise, "that his posterity should sojourn in a strange land, where they should be enslaved and abused four hundred years.

7 and the nation to whom they shall be in bondage, will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place."

8 at length he gave him the covenant of circumcision: accordingly Abraham circumcised his son Isaac eight days after he was born, Isaac was father of Jacob, who was father of the twelve patriarchs.

9 the patriarchs being jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt: but God was with him,

10 he delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him wisdom to become acceptable to Pharaoh king of Egypt; who made him governor of Egypt, and all his houshold.