Acts 7:1–29

Stephen’s Defense

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

²And he said, “Hear me, ^abrothers and fathers! ^bThe God of glory ^cappeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in ¹Haran,

³and said to him, ‘^aLeave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’

⁴“^aThen he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in ¹Haran. ^bFrom there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.

⁵“But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and ^aHe promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even when he had no child.

⁶“But ^aGod spoke in this way, that his seed would be sojourners in a foreign land, and that they would ¹be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷“‘And I Myself will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved,’ said God, ‘and ^aafter that they will come out and ¹serve me in this place.’

⁸“And He ^agave him ¹the covenant of circumcision; and so ^bAbraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and ^cIsaac was the father of Jacob, and ^dJacob of the twelve ^epatriarchs.

⁹“And the patriarchs, ^abecoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him,

¹⁰and rescued him from all his afflictions, and ^agranted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹“Now ^aa famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers ¹could find no food.

¹²“But ^awhen Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.

¹³“And on the second visit ^aJoseph ¹made himself known to his brothers, and ^bJoseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh.

¹⁴“Then ^aJoseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, ^bseventy-five ^1cpersons in all.

¹⁵“And ^aJacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died.

¹⁶“And from there they were removed to ^1aShechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of ²Hamor in ³Shechem.

¹⁷“But as the ^atime of the promise was drawing near which God had assured to Abraham, ^bthe people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until ^aanother king arose over Egypt who did not know about Joseph.

¹⁹“It was he who ^adeceitfully took advantage of our family and mistreated our fathers to ^1bset their infants outside so that they would not survive.

²⁰“It was at this time that ^aMoses was born, and he was lovely ¹in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home.

²¹“And after he had been set outside, ^aPharaoh’s daughter ¹took him away and nurtured him as her own son.

²²“And Moses was educated in all ^athe wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds.

²³“But when he was approaching the age of forty, ^ait entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

²⁴“And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took justice for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.

²⁵“And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them salvation ¹through him, but they did not understand.

²⁶“^aOn the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you treating one another unjustly?’

²⁷“But the one who was treating his neighbor unjustly pushed him away, saying, ‘^aWho made you a ruler and judge over us?

²⁸‘^aDo you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁹“At this remark, ^aMoses fled and became a sojourner in the land of ¹Midian, where he ^bwas the father of two sons.