Acts 7:1-56 ▼

1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

2 And he began to speak: “Men, brothers and fathers, listen! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, being in Mesopotamia before his dwelling in Haran,

3 and He said to him, ‘Go out of your country and from your kindred, and come into the land that I will show to you.’

4 Then, having gone out from the land of the Chaldeans, he dwelt in Haran. And from there, after his father died, He transferred him into this land in which you? now dwell.

5 And He did not give to him an inheritance in it, not even the length of a foot; but He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him—there being to him no child.

6 And 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.

7 ‘And the nation to which they will be in bondage, I will judge,’ God said, ‘and after these things they will come out and will serve Me in this place.’

8 And He gave to him the covenant of circumcision; and thus he begat Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

9 And the patriarchs, having envied Joseph, sold him into Egypt. And God was with him,

10 and He rescued him out of all his tribulations, and He gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his house.

11 And there was a famine upon all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers were not finding sustenance.

12 Now Jacob, having heard there is grain in Egypt, sent forth our fathers first.

13 And on the second time, Joseph was made known to his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh.

14 And Joseph, having sent, called for his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls in all.

15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died—he and our fathers,

16 and they were carried over into Shechem and were placed in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

17 Now as the time of the promise that God swore to Abraham was drawing near, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

18 until there arose another king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

19 Having dealt treacherously with our kindred, this one mistreated our fathers, making them expose their infants, that they would not live.

20 In that time Moses was born (and he was beautiful to God), who was brought up three months in the house of his father.

21 And on his having been exposed, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up and brought him up for herself for a son.

22 And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

23 Now when a period of forty years was fulfilled to him, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

24 And having seen a certain one being wronged, he defended and did vengeance for the one being oppressed, having struck down the Egyptian.

25 And he was supposing his brothers to understand that God is giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

26 And on the following day, he appeared to those who were quarreling and urged them to peace, having said, ‘Men, you? are brothers. Why do you? wrong one another?’

27 But the one mistreating the neighbor pushed him away, having said, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?

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

29 Now at this word Moses fled, and he became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

30 And forty years having been fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire of a bush.

31 And Moses, having seen, marveled at the vision. And on his coming near to behold, there was the voice of the Lord:

32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses, having become terrified, did not dare to look.

33 And the Lord said to him, ‘Loose the sandal of your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

34 I have surely seen the oppression of My people in Egypt, and I heard their groans, and I came down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

35 This Moses, whom they rejected, having said, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge?’—this one whom God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel having appeared to him in the bush—

36 this one led them out, having done wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

37 This is the Moses having said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you? a prophet like me from among your? brothers.’

38 This is the one having been in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel speaking to him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,

39 to whom our fathers were not willing to be obedient, but pushed away, and they turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

40 having said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, who brought us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what happened to him.’

41 And in those days they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, and they were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

42 But God turned away and delivered them to worship the host of heaven, as it has been written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you? offer slain beasts and sacrifices to Me forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

43 And you? took up the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your? god Rephan, the images that you? made to worship them; and I will remove you? beyond Babylon.’

44 The tabernacle of the Testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, just as the One speaking to Moses had commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,

45 and which, having received it by succession, our fathers brought in with Joshua in taking possession of the nations whom God drove out from the face of our fathers, until the days of David,

46 who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

47 But Solomon built for Him a house.

48 But the Most High does not dwell in hand-made houses. As the prophet says:

49 ‘Heaven is unto Me a throne, and the earth 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?

50 Did not My hand make all these things?’

51 You? stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears! You? always resist the Holy Spirit! As did your? fathers, also you? do.

52 Which of the prophets did your? fathers not persecute? And they killed those having foretold about the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you? have now become betrayers and murderers,

53 you who received the law by the ordination of angels, and did not keep it.”

54 Now hearing these things, they were cut in their hearts, and they were gnashing the teeth at him.

55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, having looked intently into heaven, he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens having been opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”