Acts 7:1-22 ▼

1 THEN the high priest asked Stephen, Are these things so?

2 He said, Men, brethren and our fathers, harken: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mes-opo- ta’mi-a before he came to dwell in Ha’ran.

3 And he said to him, Get out of your land and from your relatives and come into the land which I shall show you.

4 Then Abraham left the land of the Chalde’ans and he came and settled in Ha’ran and from thence, after his father’s death, God removed him into this land in which you now live.

5 And he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it as an inheritance to him and to his posterity, when as yet he had no son.

6 God spoke to him and said, Your descendants will be settlers in a foreign land where they will be enslaved and mistreated for a period of four hundred years.

7 But the people to whom they will be enslaved I will condemn, said God, and after that, they shall go out and serve me in this land.

8 God gave Ab’raham the covenant of circumcision; and then Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat our twelve patriarchs.

9 And our forefathers were jealous of Joseph; so they sold him into Egypt; but God was with him.

10 And he saved him from all his oppressors and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and Pharaoh appointed Joseph an overlord over Egypt and over all his house.

11 Now there came a famine which brought great distress throughout Egypt and in the land of Ca’naan so that our forefathers found no sustenance.

12 But when Jacob heard that there was wheat in Egypt, he sent out our forefathers on their first venture.

13 When they went the second time, Joseph made himself known to his brothers; and Joseph’s family was made known to Pharaoh.

14 Then Joseph sent and brought his father Jacob and all his family, seventy-five souls in number.

15 So Jacob went down to Egypt where he and our forefathers died.

16 And he was removed to Sy’chem and buried in the sepulchre which Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Ha’mor.

17 But when the time of the promise was at hand, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people had already increased and become strong in Egypt,

18 Till another king reigned over Egypt who knew not Joseph.

19 He dealt deceitfully with our kindred, ill treated our forefathers, and commanded that they cast out their male children to the end that they might not live.

20 During that very period Moses was born, and he was favored before God, so that for three months he was nourished in his father’s house.

21 And when he was cast away by his mother, Pharaoh’s daughter found him and reared him as a son for herself.

22 So Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the E-gyp’tians and he was well versed in his words and also in his deeds.