ACTS 7:14-46

¹⁴And Joseph sent, and called to him Jacob his father, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

¹⁵And Jacob went down into Egypt; and he died, himself, and our fathers;

¹⁶and they were carried over unto Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver of the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷But as the time of the promise drew nigh, which God vouchsafed unto Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸till there arose another king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

¹⁹The same dealt subtilly with our race, and evil entreated our fathers, that they should cast out their babes to the end they might not live.

²⁰At which season Moses was born, and was exceeding fair; and he was nourished three months in his father’s house:

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

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

²³But when he was well-nigh 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, smiting the Egyptian:

²⁵and he supposed that his brethren understood how that God by his hand was giving them deliverance; but they understood not.

²⁶And the day following he appeared unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?

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

²⁸Wouldest thou kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

³⁰And when forty years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹And when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold, there came a voice of the Lord,

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

³³And the Lord said unto him, Loose the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

³⁴I have surely seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I 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? him hath God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶This man led them forth, having wrought wonders and signs in Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

³⁷This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me.

³⁸This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received living oracles to give unto us:

³⁹to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and turned back in their hearts unto Egypt,

⁴⁰saying unto Aaron, Make us gods which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, which led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

⁴¹And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did ye offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

⁴³And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of the god Rephan, The figures which ye made to worship them: And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

⁴⁴Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he appointed who spake unto Moses, that he should make it according to the figure that he had seen.

⁴⁵Which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered on the possession of the nations, which God thrust out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

⁴⁶who found favour in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.