noyes Acts:7:1-53 SEEK
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And the high
priest said ,
Are then these things so ?
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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 ,
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and said to him , "
Go forth from thy country and thy kindred ,
and come into the land which I will show thee ."
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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 ;
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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 .
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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 ;
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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 ."
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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 .
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And the patriarchs ,
moved with envy ,
sold Joseph into Egypt ;
and God was with him ,
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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 .
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Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan ,
and great distress ;
and our fathers found no Sustenance .
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But Jacob ,
hearing that there was grain in Egypt ,
sent out our fathers first .
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And at the second time Joseph was recognized by his brothers ,
and the kindred of Joseph became known to Pharaoh .
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Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob to him ,
and all his kindred ,
seventy five souls .
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And Jacob went down ,
and died ,
he and our fathers .
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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 .
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But as the time of the promise drew near ,
which God solemnly made to Abraham ,
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt ,
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until another king arose ,
who knew not Joseph .
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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 .
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In which time Moses was born ,
and was exceedingly fair ;
who was nourished in his father
s house three months .
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And when he was cast out ,
Pharaoh
s daughter took him up ,
and nourished him for herself as a son .
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And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ,
and was mighty in his worlds and deeds .
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And when he was forty years old ,
it came into his heart to visit his brethren ,
the sons of Israel .
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And seeing one of them suffer wrong ,
he defended him ,
and avenged him that was oppressed by smiting the Egyptian .
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For he supposed his brethren would understand that God through his hand would give them salvation ;
but they understood not .
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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 ?
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But he who was wronging his neighbor thrust him away ,
saying , "
Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us ?
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Dost thou mean to kill me ,
as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday ?"
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And Moses fled at this saying ,
and became a sojourner in the land of Midian ,
where he begat two sons .
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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 .
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And Moses seeing it wondered at the sight ;
and as he drew near to behold it ,
the voice of the Lord came ,
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saying , "
I am the God of thy fathers ,
the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob ."
And Moses trembled and durst not behold .
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And the Lord said to him , "
Loose the sandals from thy feet ;
for the place where thou standest is holy ground .
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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 ."
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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 .
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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 .
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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 ."
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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 ;
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to whom our fathers would not be obedient ,
but thrust him from them ,
and in their hearts turned back into Egypt ,
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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 ."
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And they made a calf in those days ,
and offered sacrifice to the idol ,
and rejoiced in the works of their own hands .
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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 ?
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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 ."
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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 ;
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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 ;
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who found favor before God ,
and asked that he might find a habitation for the God of Jacob .
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But Solomon built him a house .
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Yet the Most High dwelleth not in made with hands ;
as saith the prophet ,
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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 ?
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Did not my hands make all these things ?"
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Stiffnecked ,
and uncircumcised in heart and ears !
ye do always resist the Holy Spirit ;
as your fathers did ,
so do ye .
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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 ;
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ye who received the Law as ordained through angels ,
and did not keep it .