Acts:7

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* The high priest said , "Are these things so ?" * He said , "Brothers and fathers , listen . The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham , when he was in Mesopotamia , before he lived in Haran , * and said to him , 'Get out of your land , and from your relatives , and come into a land which I will show you .' {Genesis strkjv @12:1 } * Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans , and lived in Haran . From there , when his father was dead , God moved him into this land , where you are now living . * He gave him no inheritance in it , no , not so much as to set his foot on . He promised that he would give it to him for a possession , and to his seed after him , when he still had no child . * God spoke in this way : that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land , and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years . * 'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage ,' said God , 'and after that will they come out , and serve me in this place .' {Genesis strkjv @15:13-14 } * He gave him the covenant of circumcision . So Abraham became the father of Isaac , and circumcised him the eighth day . Isaac became the father of Jacob , and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs . * "The patriarchs , moved with jealousy against Joseph , sold him into Egypt . God was with him , * and delivered him out of all his afflictions , and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh , king of Egypt . He made him governor over Egypt and all his house . * Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan , and great affliction . Our fathers found no food . * But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt , he sent out our fathers the first time . * On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers , and Joseph 's race was revealed to Pharaoh . * Joseph sent , and summoned Jacob , his father , and all his relatives , seventy-five souls . * Jacob went down into Egypt , and he died , himself and our fathers , * and they were brought back to Shechem , and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem . * "But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham , the people grew and multiplied in Egypt , * until there arose a different king , who didn 't know Joseph . * The same took advantage of our race , and mistreated our fathers , and forced them to throw out their babies , so that they wouldn 't stay alive . * At that time Moses was born , and was exceedingly handsome . He was nourished three months in his father 's house . * When he was thrown out , Pharaoh 's daughter took him up , and reared him as her own son . * Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians . He was mighty in his words and works . * But when he was forty years old , it came into his heart to visit his brothers {The word for "brothers " here and where the context allows may be also correctly translated "brothers and sisters " or "siblings ."}, the children of Israel . * Seeing one of them suffer wrong , he defended him , and avenged him who was oppressed , striking the Egyptian . * He supposed that his brothers understood that God , by his hand , was giving them deliverance ; but they didn 't understand . * "The day following , he appeared to them as they fought , and urged them to be at peace again , saying , 'Sirs , you are brothers . 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 killed the Egyptian yesterday ?' {Exodus strkjv @2:14 } * Moses fled at this saying , and became a stranger in the land of Midian , where he became the father of two sons . * "When forty years were fulfilled , an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai , in a flame of fire in a bush . * When Moses saw it , he wondered at the sight . As he came close to see , a voice of the Lord came to him , * 'I am the God of your fathers , the God of Abraham , the God of Isaac , and the God of Jacob .' {Exodus strkjv @3:6 } Moses trembled , and dared not look . * The Lord said to him , 'Take your sandals off of your feet , for the place where you stand is holy ground . * I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt , and have heard their groaning . I have come down to deliver them . Now come , I will send you into Egypt .' {Exodus strkjv @3:5 ,7-8 ,10 } * "This Moses , whom they refused , saying , 'Who made you a ruler and a judge ?'--God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush . * This man led them out , having worked wonders and signs in Egypt , in the Red Sea , and in the wilderness for forty years . * This is that Moses , who said to the children of Israel , 'The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers , like me . {TR adds "You shall listen to him ."}' {Deuteronomy strkjv @18:15 } * This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai , and with our fathers , who received living oracles to give to us , * to whom our fathers wouldn 't be obedient , but rejected him , and turned back in their hearts to Egypt , * saying to Aaron , 'Make us gods that will go before us , for as for this Moses , who led us out of the land of Egypt , we don 't know what has become of him .' {Exodus strkjv @32:1 } * They made a calf in those days , and brought a sacrifice to the idol , and rejoiced in the works of their hands . * But God turned , and gave them up to serve the army of the sky , {This idiom could also be translated "host of heaven ," or "angelic beings ," or "heavenly bodies ."} as it is written in the book of the prophets , 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness , O house of Israel ? * You took up the tabernacle of Moloch , the star of your god Rephan , the figures which you made to worship . I will carry you away {Amos strkjv @5:25-27 } beyond Babylon .' * "Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness , even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen ; * which also our fathers , in their turn , brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations , whom God drove out before the face of our fathers , to the days of David , * who found favor in the sight of God , and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob . * But Solomon built him a house . * However , the Most High doesn 't dwell in temples made with hands , as the prophet says , * 'heaven is my throne , and the earth a footstool for my feet . What kind of house will you build me ?' says the Lord ; 'or what is the place of my rest ? * Didn 't my hand make all these things ?' {Isaiah strkjv @66:1-2 } * "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears , you always resist the Holy Spirit ! As your fathers did , so you do . * Which of the prophets didn 't your fathers persecute ? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One , of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers . * You received the law as it was ordained by angels , and didn 't keep it !" * Now 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 , looked up steadfastly into heaven , and saw the glory of God , and Jesus standing on the right hand of God , * and said , "Behold , I see the heavens opened , and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God !" * But they cried out with a loud voice , and stopped their ears , and rushed at him with one accord . * They threw him out of the city , and stoned him . The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul . * They stoned Stephen as he called out , saying , "Lord Jesus , receive my spirit !" * He kneeled down , and cried with a loud voice , "Lord , don 't hold this sin against them !" When he had said this , he fell asleep .

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