Acts 7:1-27

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

²And he said, “Men, brothers and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,

³and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your relatives, and come to a land which I will show you.’

⁴Then he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled down in Haran. And from there, after his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.

⁵And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a place to put his foot on, and He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him, though he had no child.

⁶But God spoke in this way: that his offspring would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would enslave them, and they would treat them badly four hundred years.

⁷‘And the nation which they will serve, I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after these things they will come out and serve Me in this place.’

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

⁹“And the patriarchs, being jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; and God was with him,

¹⁰and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him ruler over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no provisions.

¹²And Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

¹³And on the second visit Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent and summoned his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people.

¹⁵So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers.

¹⁶And they were brought back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb which Abraham bought for a price of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

¹⁷“Now when the time of the promise drew near which God swore to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until there arose a different king, who did not know Joseph.

¹⁹This king took advantage of our race, and oppressed our fathers, to make their babies exposed, in order that they might not preserve their lives.

²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was well pleasing to God; who was brought up in his father's house for three months.

²¹But when he was exposed, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up, and brought him up for herself as a son.

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

²³“Now when he had turned forty years old, it came into his heart to look upon his brothers, the sons of Israel.

²⁴And seeing someone being wronged, he retaliated, and avenged him who was being oppressed, and struck the Egyptian.

²⁵For he supposed that his brothers understood that God was giving to them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand.

²⁶And on the next day he appeared to them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them to peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’

²⁷But the one wronging his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?