Acts 7:1-24 ▼

1 And the high priests said; Are these things so?

2 And he said, Men, brothers and fathers, hear ye; The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, while he was in Mesopotamia, before he migrated into Haran, and He said to him;

3 Come out from thy country and from thy kindred, and come hither into the land which I will show unto thee.

4 And after his father died he migrated himself thence into this country in which you now dwell,

5 and God gave him no inheritance in it, not the step of his foot; and he promised to give it to him, and his seed after him, for an inheritance, there being no child to him.

6 And thus God spoke, that his seed shall sojourn in a strange land, and they will enslave it and oppress it four hundred years.

7 And the nation whom they shall serve I will judge, says God, and after these things they shall come out and serve 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, envying Joseph, sold him into Egypt:

10 and God was with him, and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him grace and wisdom before Pharaoh the king of Egypt; and he placed him governor over Egypt and all his house.

11 And the famine came into all the land and Canaan, and great distress: and our fathers found no sustenance.

12 And Jacob hearing that there is food in Egypt, sent away our fathers first.

13 And the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren, and his race became manifest to Pharaoh.

14 And Joseph sending, called to him Jacob his father, and all the family, seventy-five souls.

15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he and our fathers died there.

16 And they were carried over into Shechem, and buried in a tomb which Abraham purchased from the sons of Emmor in Shechem with a sum of money.

17 When the time of the promise which God made with Abraham drew nigh, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

18 until another king arose over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.

19 He dealing fraudulently with our race, afflicted our fathers, that they should expose their infants, so that they should not live.

20 During which time Moses was born, and was beautiful to God; who was kept three months in the house of his father.

21 And he being exposed, the daughter of Pharaoh took him, and adopted him for a son to herself.

22 And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and was mighty in his words and works.

23 And when the time of the fortieth year was fulfilled to him, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

24 And seeing a certain one suffering affliction, he interposed, and executed vengeance in behalf of the oppressed one, slaying the Egyptian.