Acts 7:1–29

Stephen’s Defense

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

²And he said, “Hear me, ^abrethren 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 yet, even when he had no child, ^aHe promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.

⁶“But ^aGod spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would ¹be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷“ ‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ 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 became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and ^cIsaac became the father of Jacob, and ^dJacob of the twelve ^epatriarchs.

⁹“The patriarchs ^abecame jealous of Joseph and 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 made 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“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“From there they were removed to ^1aShechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of ²Hamor in Shechem.

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

¹⁸until ^athere arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.

¹⁹“It was he who took ^ashrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would ^1bexpose their infants and 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“Moses was educated in all ^athe learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.

²³“But when he was approaching the age of forty, ^ait entered his ¹mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel.

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

²⁵“And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them ¹deliverance ²through 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 brethren, why do you injure one another?’

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

²⁸‘^aYou do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’

²⁹“At this remark, ^aMoses fled and became an alien in the land of ¹Midian, where he ^bbecame the father of two sons.