Acts:7

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* Then the high priest said , "Are these things so ?" * And he said , "Brethren and fathers , listen : The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia , before he dwelt in Haran , * and said to him , "Get out of your country and from your relatives , and come to a land that I will show you .' * Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran . And from there , when his father was dead , He moved him to this land in which you now dwell . * And God gave him no inheritance in it , not even enough to set his foot on . But even when Abraham had no child , He promised to give it to him for a possession , and to his descendants after him . * But God spoke in this way : that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land , and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years . * "And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge ,' said God , "and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place .' * Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision ; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day ; and Isaac begot Jacob , and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs . * "And the patriarchs , becoming envious , sold Joseph into Egypt . But God was with him * and delivered him out of all his troubles , and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh , king of Egypt ; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house . * Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan , and our fathers found no sustenance . * But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt , he sent out our fathers first . * And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers , and Joseph 's family became known to the Pharaoh . * Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him , seventy-five people . * So Jacob went down to Egypt ; and he died , he and our fathers . * And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor , the father of Shechem . * "But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham , the people grew and multiplied in Egypt * till another king arose who did not know Joseph . * This man dealt treacherously with our people , and oppressed our forefathers , making them expose their babies , so that they might not live . * At this time Moses was born , and was well pleasing to God ; and he was brought up in his father 's house for three months . * But when he was set out , Pharaoh 's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son . * And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians , and was mighty in words and deeds . * "Now when he was forty years old , it came into his heart to visit his brethren , the children of Israel . * And seeing one of them suffer wrong , he defended and avenged him who was oppressed , and struck down the Egyptian . * For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand , but they did not understand . * And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting , and tried to reconcile them , saying , "Men , you are brethren ; why do you wrong one another ?' * But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away , saying , "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us ? * Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday ?' * Then , at this saying , Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian , where he had two sons . * "And when forty years had passed , an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush , in the wilderness of Mount Sinai . * When Moses saw it , he marveled at the sight ; and as he drew near to observe , the voice of the Lord came to him , * saying , "I am the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham , the God of Isaac , and the God of Jacob .' And Moses trembled and dared not look . * "Then the LORD said to him , "Take your sandals off your feet , for the place where you stand is holy ground . * I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt ; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them . And now come , I will send you to Egypt ."' * "This Moses whom they rejected , saying , "Who made you a ruler and a judge ?' is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush . * He brought them out , after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt , and in the Red Sea , and in the wilderness forty years . * "This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel , "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren . Him you shall hear .' * "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai , and with our fathers , the one who received the living oracles to give to us , * whom our fathers would not obey , but rejected . And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt , * saying to Aaron , "Make us gods to go before us ; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt , we do not know what has become of him .' * And they made a calf in those days , offered sacrifices to the idol , and rejoiced in the works of their own hands . * Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven , as it is written in the book of the Prophets : "Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness , O house of Israel ? * You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch , And the star of your god Remphan , Images which you made to worship ; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon .' * "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness , as He appointed , instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen , * which our fathers , having received it in turn , also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles , whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David , * who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob . * But Solomon built Him a house . * "However , the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands , as the prophet says : * "Heaven is My throne , And earth is My footstool . What house will you build for Me ? says the LORD , Or what is the place of My rest ? * Has My hand not made all these things ?' * "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ! You always resist the Holy Spirit ; as your fathers did , so do you . * Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute ? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One , of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers , * who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it ." * When they heard these things they were cut to the heart , and they gnashed at him with their teeth . * But he , being full of the Holy Spirit , gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God , and Jesus standing at the right hand of God , * and said , "Look ! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God !" * Then they cried out with a loud voice , stopped their ears , and ran at him with one accord ; * and they cast him out of the city and stoned him . And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul . * And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying , "Lord Jesus , receive my spirit ." * Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice , "Lord , do not charge them with this sin ." And when he had said this , he fell asleep .

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