Acts 7:20–45

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.

³⁰“And when^* forty years had been completed, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹And when^* Moses saw it,^* he was astonished at the sight, and when^* he approached to look at it,^* the voice of the Lord came: ³²‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob!’ⁿ So Moses began trembling and^* did not dare to look at it.^{* 33}And the Lord said to him, ‘Untie the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴I have certainly seen^o the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’^{p 35}This Moses whom they had repudiated, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?’^q—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer with the help^r of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷“This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’^{s 38}This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and who with our fathers received living oracles to give to us, ³⁹to whom our fathers were not willing to become obedient, but rejected him^* and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, ⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go on before us! For this Moses, who led us out from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him!’^{t 41}And they manufactured a calf in those days, and offered up a sacrifice to the idol, and began rejoicing^* in the works of their hands. ⁴²But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, just as it is written in the book of the prophets:

‘You did not bring offerings and sacrifices to me

for forty years in the wilderness, did you,^* house of Israel?

⁴³And you took along the tabernacle^u of Moloch

and the star of the god^v Rephan,

the images that you made, to worship them,

and I will deport you beyond Babylon!’^w

⁴⁴The tabernacle of the testimony belonged^x to our fathers in the wilderness, just as the one who spoke to Moses directed him^* to make it according to the design that he had seen, ⁴⁵and which, after^* receiving it^* in turn, our fathers brought in with Joshua when they dispossessed the^y nations that God drove out from the presence of our fathers, until the days of David,