Acts 7:1-10 ▼

1 Now the high priest asked [Stephen], “Are these charges true?”

2 And he answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

3 and He said to him, ‘LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.’

4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God sent him to this country in which you now live.

5 But He did not give him inheritable property, not even enough ground to take a step on, yet He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A POSSESSION, AND TO HIS DESCENDANTS AFTER HIM.

6 And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS (strangers) IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

7 ‘AND I WILL JUDGE ANY NATION TO WHOM THEY WILL BE IN BONDAGE,’ said God, ‘AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME [in worship] IN THIS PLACE.’

8 And God gave Abraham a covenant [a formal agreement to be strictly observed] of [which] circumcision [was the sign]; and so [under these circumstances] Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [became the father] of Jacob, and Jacob [became the father] of the twelve patriarchs.

9 “The [ten elder] patriarchs, overwhelmed with jealousy, sold [their younger brother] Joseph into [slavery in] Egypt; but God was with him,

10 and He rescued him from all his suffering, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made Joseph governor over Egypt and over his entire household.