Acts:7

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* And the high –priest said , Are then these things so ? * And he said , Brethren and fathers , hearken . The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham , when he was in Mesopotamia , before he dwelt in Haran , * and said to him , "Go forth from thy country and thy kindred , and come into the land which I will show thee ." * Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans , and dwelt in Haran ; and from thence , after his father was dead , he caused him to remove into this land wherein ye now dwell ; * and he gave him no inheritance in it , no , not so much as to set his foot on ; and he promised to give it to him for a possession , and to his posterity after him , when as yet he had no child . * And God spoke in this manner : "That his posterity should sojourn in a foreign land , and that they would bring them into bondage , and ill –treat them four hundred years ; * and the nation to which they shall be in bondage will I judge ," said God ; "and after that they shall come forth , and shall worship me in this place ." * And he gave him the covenant of circumcision ; and so he begat Isaac , and circumcised him on the eighth day ; and Isaac begat Jacob , and Jacob the twelve patriarchs . * And the patriarchs , moved with envy , sold Joseph into Egypt ; and God was with him , * and delivered him out of all his afflictions , and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt ; and he made him governor over Egypt , and all his house . * Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan , and great distress ; and our fathers found no Sustenance . * But Jacob , hearing that there was grain in Egypt , sent out our fathers first . * And at the second time Joseph was recognized by his brothers , and the kindred of Joseph became known to Pharaoh . * Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob to him , and all his kindred , seventy five souls . * And Jacob went down , and died , he and our fathers . * And they were removed to Shechem , and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Hamor , the father of Shechem . * But as the time of the promise drew near , which God solemnly made to Abraham , the people grew and multiplied in Egypt , * until another king arose , who knew not Joseph . * The same dealt subtly with our race , and ill –treated our fathers , so that they should cast out their infants , that they might not be preserved alive . * In which time Moses was born , and was exceedingly fair ; who was nourished in his father ’s house three months . * And when he was cast out , Pharaoh ’s daughter took him up , and nourished him for herself as a son . * And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians , and was mighty in his worlds and deeds . * And when he was forty years old , it came into his heart to visit his brethren , the sons of Israel . * And seeing one of them suffer wrong , he defended him , and avenged him that was oppressed by smiting the Egyptian . * For he supposed his brethren would understand that God through his hand would give them salvation ; but they understood not . * And the next day he showed himself to them as they were contending , and urged them to peace , saying , Ye are brethren ; why do ye wrong one another ? * But he who was wronging his neighbor thrust him away , saying , "Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us ? * Dost thou mean to kill me , as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday ?" * And Moses fled at this saying , and became a sojourner in the land of Midian , where he begat two sons . * And when forty years were completed , there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel in the flaming fire of a bush . * And Moses seeing it wondered at the sight ; and as he drew near to behold it , the voice of the Lord came , * saying , "I am the God of thy fathers , the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob ." And Moses trembled and durst not behold . * And the Lord said to him , "Loose the sandals from thy feet ; for the place where thou standest is holy ground . * I have surely seen the oppression of my people in Egypt , and I have heard their groaning , and am come down to deliver them ; and now , come , I will send thee into Egypt ." * This Moses , whom they denied , saying , "Who made thee a ruler and a judge ?" this very man did God send both as a ruler and a redeemer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush . * This very man brought them out , working wonders and signs in the land of Egypt , and in the Red Sea , and in the wilderness forty years . * This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel , "A prophet will God raise up to you from among your brethren , as he raised up me ." * This is he that was in the assembly in the wilderness with the anger who spake to him on Mount Sinai , and with our fathers ; who received the living oracles to give to us ; * to whom our fathers would not be obedient , but thrust him from them , and in their hearts turned back into Egypt , * saying to Aaron , "Make us gods who shall go before us ; for as for this Moses , who brought us out of the land of Egypt , we know not what is become of him ." * And they made a calf in those days , and offered sacrifice to the idol , and rejoiced in the works of their own hands . * But God turned away , and gave them up to worship the host of heaven ; as it is written in the book of the Prophets , "Did ye offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness , O house of Israel ? * And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch , and the star of the god Rephan , the figures which ye made to worship them ; and I will carry you away beyond Babylon ." * Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness , as he that spoke to Moses commanded that he should make it according to the pattern that he had seen ; * which also our fathers received and brought in with Joshua , at their taking possession of the gentiles whom God drove out from before our fathers , until the days of David ; * who found favor before God , and asked that he might find a habitation for the God of Jacob . * But Solomon built him a house . * Yet the Most High dwelleth not in made with hands ; as saith the prophet , * "Heaven is my throne , and the earth is my footstool . What house will ye build for me ? saith the Lord ; or what is the place of my rest ? * Did not my hands make all these things ?" * Stiffnecked , and uncircumcised in heart and ears ! ye do always resist the Holy Spirit ; as your fathers did , so do ye . * Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute ? And they slew those who foretold the coming of the righteous one , of whom ye have now become the betrayers and murderers ; * ye who received the Law as ordained through angels , and did not keep it . * But when they heard these things , their hearts were filled with rage , and they gnashed their teeth at him . * But , being full of the Holy Spirit , he looked up earnestly into heaven , and saw the glory of God , and Jesus standing on the right hand of God , * and said , Lo , I behold the heavens opened , and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God . * And they cried out with a loud voice , and stopped their ears , and rushed upon him with one accord ; * and having cast him out of the city , they stoned him . And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul ; * and they stoned Stephen , making supplication , and saying , Lord Jesus , receive my spirit . * And kneeling down he cried with a loud voice , Lord , lay not this sin to their charge . And saying this , he fell asleep .

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