Acts 7:1-25 ▼

1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

2 And he said, “Hear me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

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

4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.

5 But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A POSSESSION, AND TO HIS SEED AFTER HIM, even when he had no child.

6 But God spoke in this way, that his SEED WOULD BE SOJOURNERS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

7 ‘AND I MYSELF WILL JUDGE THE NATION TO WHICH THEY WILL BE ENSLAVED,’ said God, ‘AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.’

8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

9 “And the patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him,

10 and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.

12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.

13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh.

14 Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.

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

16 And from there they were removed to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

17 “But as the time of the promise was drawing near which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

18 until ANOTHER KING AROSE OVER EGYPT WHO DID NOT KNOW ABOUT JOSEPH.

19 It was he who deceitfully took advantage of our family and mistreated our fathers to set their infants outside so that they would not survive.

20 It was at this time that Moses was born, and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home.

21 And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.

22 And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds.

23 But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

24 And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took justice for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.

25 And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them salvation through him, but they did not understand.