Acts 7:1-10 ▼

1 THEN said the high-priest, Are these things so?

2 He replied, Men, brethren, and fathers, hear me: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

3 and said to him, Go forth out of thy country, and from among thy relations, and come hither to a land which I will shew thee.

4 Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans, and, dwelt in Charran: and from thence, after his father was dead, God removed him as a sojourner into this very country, in which we now dwell.

5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not so much as the print of his foot: yet he promised to give it for a possession to him and to his seed after him, when he had no son.

6 Then spake God to him thus, That his seed should sojourn in a foreign land: and that they should enslave it, and grievously afflict it, four hundred years.

7 And the nation by which they shall be enslaved will I judge, said God: and after these things they shall come out, and shall worship me in this place.

8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so he begat Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

9 And the patriarchs, envious, sold Joseph into Egypt: yet God was with him,

10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his house.