Acts 7:1-7 ▼

1 Then the high priest asked, |Is this true?|

2 Stephen replied: |Listen, brothers and fathers! |The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.

3 God told him, 'Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I'll show you.'

4 So he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country where you now live.

5 God gave him no property here, not even a foot of land, yet he promised to give it to him and to his descendants after him as a permanent possession, even though he had no child.

6 |This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years.

7 But I will punish the nation they serve,' said God, 'and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.'