Acts 7:1–29

Stephen’s Defense

7And the high priest said, “Is it so concerning these things?” ²So he said, “Men—brothers and fathers—listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he^* was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, ³and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your relatives and come to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and^* settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he caused him to move to this land in which you now live. ⁵And he did not give him an inheritance in it—not even a footstep^a—and he promised to give it^* to him for his possession, and to his descendants after him, although he did not have^b* a child. ⁶But God spoke like this: ‘His descendants will be foreigners in a foreign land, and they will enslave them and mistreat them^* four hundred years, ⁷and the nation that^c they will serve as slaves, I will judge,’ God said, ‘and after these things they will come out^d and will worship me in this place.’^{e 8}And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac did so with^* Jacob, and Jacob did so with^* the twelve patriarchs. ⁹And the patriarchs, because they^* were jealous of Joseph, sold him^* into Egypt. And God was with him, ¹⁰and rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he appointed him ruler over Egypt and all^f his household. ¹¹And a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction, and our fathers could not find food. ¹²So when^* Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. ¹³And on the second visit^* Joseph was made known to his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴So Joseph sent and^* summoned his father Jacob and all his^* relatives, seventy-five persons in all. ¹⁵And Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶And they were brought back to Shechem and buried in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“But as the time of the promise that God had made to Abraham was drawing near, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt ¹⁸until another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. ¹⁹This man deceitfully took advantage of our^* people and^* mistreated our ancestors, causing them to abandon their infants^g so that they would not be kept alive. ²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. He^h was brought up for three months in his^* father’s house, ²¹and when^* he was abandoned, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up and brought him up as her own son.^{i 22}And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³“But when he was forty years old,^j it entered in his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. ²⁴And when he^* saw one of them being unjustly harmed, he defended him^* and avenged^k the one who had been oppressed by^* striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵And he thought his^* brothers would understand that God was granting deliverance to them by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶And on the following day, he made an appearance to them while they^* were fighting and was attempting to reconcile^* them in peace, saying, ‘Men and brothers, why are you doing wrong to one another?’ ²⁷But the one who was doing wrong to his^* neighbor pushed him aside, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸You do not want to do away with me the same way^l you did away with the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’^{m 29}And at this statement, Moses fled and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.