Acts 7:1-38

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

²And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

³And said to him, Depart from thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.

⁴Then he came from the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran. And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land in which ye now dwell.

⁵And 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 to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when as yet he had no child.

⁶And God spoke on this wise, That his offspring should sojourn in a foreign land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them ill four hundred years.

⁷And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that they shall come forth, and serve me in this place.

⁸And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

⁹And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,

¹⁰And delivered him from all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt, and all his house.

¹¹Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction; and our fathers found no sustenance.

¹²But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

¹³And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren: and Joseph's kindred was made known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent, and called his father Jacob to him , and all his kindred, seventy five souls.

¹⁵So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,

¹⁶And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

¹⁷But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸Till another king arose, who knew not Joseph.

¹⁹The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and ill-treated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

²⁰In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished in his father's house three months:

²¹And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

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

²³And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

²⁴And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him , and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:

²⁵For he supposed his brethren to understand that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

²⁶And the next day he showed himself to them as they were contending, and would have constrained them to be at peace again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren: why do ye wrong one to another?

²⁷But he that did his neighbor wrong, thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹Then Moses fled at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

³⁰And when forty years had expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina, an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹When Moses saw it , he wondered at the sight; and as he drew near to behold it , the voice of the Lord came to him,

³²Saying , I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.

³³Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.

³⁴I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.

³⁵This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶He brought them out, after he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

³⁷This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, A prophet will the Lord your God raise up to you of your brethren, like me; him will ye hear.

³⁸This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the living oracles to give to us: