Acts 7
1
And the high priest said, Are these things so?
2
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, Get you out of your land, and from your kindred, and come into the
land which I shall show you.
4
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Haran: and from there,
when his father was dead, [God] removed him into this land, wherein you now dwell:
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and he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: and
he promised that he would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him,
when [as yet] he had no child.
6
And God spoke on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that
they should bring them into bondage, and treat them ill, four hundred years.
7
And the nation to which they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after
that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
8
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so [Abraham] engendered Isaac, and
circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac [engendered] Jacob, and Jacob the twelve
patriarchs.
9
And the patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt: and God
was with him,
10
and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before
Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11
Now there came a famine over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers
found no sustenance.
12
But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the
first time.
13
And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph`s race became
manifest to Pharaoh.
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And Joseph sent, and called to him Jacob his father, and all his kindred, threescore
and fifteen souls.
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And Jacob went down into Egypt; and he died, himself and our fathers;
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and they were carried over to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for
a price in silver of the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
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But as the time of the promise drew nigh which God vouchsafed to Abraham, the people
grew and multiplied in Egypt,
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till there arose another king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.
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The same dealt craftily with our race, and ill-treated our fathers, that they should
cast out their babes to the end they might not live.
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At which season Moses was born, and was exceeding fair; and he was nourished three
months in his father`s house.
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and when he was cast out, Pharaoh`s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her
own son.
22
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in
his words and works.
23
But when he was well-nigh forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren
the children of Israel.
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And seeing one [of them] suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him whom was oppressed,
smiting the Egyptian:
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and he supposed that his brethren understood that God by his hand was giving them
deliverance; but they understood not.
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And the day following he appeared to them as they strove, and would have set them
at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren; why do you wrong one to another?
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But he who did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and
a judge over us?
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Would you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?
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And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where
he engendered two sons.
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And when forty years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of
Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
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And when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold, there
came a voice of the Lord,
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I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. And
Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
33
And the Lord said to him, Loose the shoes from your feet: for the place whereon you
stand is holy ground.
34
I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their
groaning, and I am come down to deliver them: and now come, I will send you into Egypt.
35
This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? him has God
sent [to be] both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel that appeared
to him in the bush.
36
This man led them forth, having wrought wonders and signs in Egypt, and in the Red
Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
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This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, A prophet shall God raise
up to you from among your brethren, like to me.
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This is he who was in the church in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him
in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received living oracles to give to us:
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to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and turned back
in their hearts to Egypt,
40
saying to Aaron, Make us gods that shall go before us: for as for this Moses, who
led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
41
And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced
in the works of their hands.
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But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in
the book of the prophets, Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices Forty years
in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43
And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of the god Rephan, The figures
which you made to worship them: And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44
Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he appointed
who spoke to Moses, that he should make it according to the figure that he had seen.
45
Which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered on
the possession of the nations, that God thrust out before the face of our fathers,
to the days of David;
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who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of
Jacob.
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But Solomon built him a house.
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Nevertheless the Most High dwells not in [houses] made with hands; as says the prophet,
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The heaven is my throne, And the earth the footstool of my feet: What manner of house
will you build me? says the Lord: Or what is the place of my rest?
50
Did not my hand make all these things?
51
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy
Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
52
Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed
before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom you have now become betrayers and
murderers;
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you who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.
54
Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on
him with their teeth.
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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,
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and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right
hand of God.
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But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him
with one accord;
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and they cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their
garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
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And they stoned Stephen, calling upon [the Lord], and saying, Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit.
60
And he knelt down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep.