Acts 7:17–60

¹⁷“As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.^{g 18}Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’^{ch 19}He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.ⁱ

²⁰“At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.^d For three months he was cared for by his family.^{j 21}When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.^{k 22}Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians^l and was powerful in speech and action.

²³“When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

²⁷“But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?^{m 28}Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{e 29}When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.ⁿ

³⁰“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:^{o 32}‘I am the God of your fathers,^p the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’^f Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.^q

³³“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.^{r 34}I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’^gs

³⁵“This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’^t He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶He led them out of Egypt^u and performed wonders and signs^v in Egypt, at the Red Sea^w and for forty years in the wilderness.^x

³⁷“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’^{hy 38}He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel^z who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors;^a and he received living words^b to pass on to us.^c

³⁹“But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.^{d 40}They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’^{ie 41}That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.^{f 42}But God turned away from them^g and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars.^h This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

“ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings

forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?

⁴³You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek

and the star of your god Rephan,

the idols you made to worship.

Therefore I will send you into exile’^ji beyond Babylon.

⁴⁴“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law^j with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.^{k 45}After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them.^l It remained in the land until the time of David,^{m 46}who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{kn 47}But it was Solomon who built a house for him.^o

⁴⁸“However, the Most High^p does not live in houses made by human hands.^q As the prophet says:

⁴⁹“ ‘Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool.^r

What kind of house will you build for me?

says the Lord.

Or where will my resting place be?

⁵⁰Has not my hand made all these things?’^ls

⁵¹“You stiff-necked people!^t Your hearts^u and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! ⁵²Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?^v They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him^w—⁵³you who have received the law that was given through angels^x but have not obeyed it.”

The Stoning of Stephen

⁵⁴When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious^y and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,^z looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.^{a 56}“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open^b and the Son of Man^c standing at the right hand of God.”

⁵⁷At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, ⁵⁸dragged him out of the city^d and began to stone him.^e Meanwhile, the witnesses^f laid their coats^g at the feet of a young man named Saul.^h

⁵⁹While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”^{i 60}Then he fell on his knees^j and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”^k When he had said this, he fell asleep.^l