²“Brothers and fathers, listen to me!” Stephen replied. “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham. At that time Abraham was still in Mesopotamia. He had not yet begun living in Haran. ³‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said. ‘Go to the land I will show you.’

⁴“So Abraham left the land of Babylonia. He settled in Haran. After his father died, God sent Abraham to this land where you are now living. ⁵God didn’t give him any property here. He didn’t give him even a foot of land. But God made a promise to him and to all his family after him. He said they would possess the land. The promise was made even though at that time Abraham had no child.

⁶“Here is what God said to him. ‘Your family after you will be strangers in a country that is not their own. They will be slaves and will be treated badly for 400 years. ⁷But I will punish the nation that makes them slaves,’ God said. ‘After that, they will leave that country and worship me here.’

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