Acts 7

¹ Now the chief priest said, "Are these thing so?" ² Now he averred, "Men, brethren, and fathers, hear! The God of glory was seen by our father Abraham, being in Mesopotamia, ere he dwelt in Charan, ³ and said to him, 'Come out of your land and from your relationship and come hither into the land which I would be showing to you.' ⁴ Then, coming out of the land of the Chaldeans, he dwells in Charan, and thence, after the death of his father, He exiles him into this land in which you are now dwelling. ⁵ And He does not give him any allotment to enjoy in it, nor even a platform for a foot. And He promises to give it to him for a tenure and to his seed after him, there being no child of his. ⁶ Yet God speaks thus, that his seed shall be sojourner in an alien land, and they shall enslave it and illtreat it four hundred years. ⁷ And the nation for whichsoever they should be slaving shall I judge, said God. And after these things they shall be coming out and offering divine service to Me in this place. ⁸ And He gives him the covenant of circumcision. And thus he begets Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs. ⁹ And the patriarchs, being jealous of Joseph, gave him up into Egypt. And God was with him, ¹⁰ and extricates him out of all his afflictions, and gives him favor and wisdom in front of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and constitutes him governor over Egypt and over his whole house. ¹¹ Now a famine came on the whole of Egypt and Canaan, and the affliction was great, and our fathers found no provender. ¹² Now Jacob, hearing that there are stores of grain in Egypt, delegates our fathers first. ¹³ And in the second time Joseph is made re-known to his brethren, and Joseph's race became apparent to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Now Joseph, dispatching them, calls for Jacob, his father, and the entire relationship among seventy-five souls. ¹⁵ And Jacob descended into Egypt, and he deceases, he and our fathers, ¹⁶ and they were transferred to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham purchases for a price, in silver, from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. ¹⁷ Now, as the time of the promise which God avows to Abraham drew near, the people grow and were multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸ until a different king rose over Egypt, who had not been acquainted with Joseph. ¹⁹ This one, dealing astutely with our race, illtreats the fathers, causing their babes to be exposed that they should not live. ²⁰ In which era Moses was born (and was handsome even to God), who was reared three months in the home of his father. ²¹ Now, at his being exposed, Pharaoh's daughter lifts him up and rears him for herself, for a son. ²² And Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, yet was powerful in his words and works. ²³ Now as his forty-year time was completed, it came on his heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. ²⁴ And perceiving someone being injured, he succors him, and does the avenging of him who is harried, smiting the Egyptian. ²⁵ Now he inferred that his brethren understood that God, through his hand, is giving salvation to them; yet they do not understand. ²⁶ Besides, on the ensuing day he was seen by them as they are fighting, and he interceded with them for peace, saying, Men! Brethren are you! Why is it that you are injuring one another? ²⁷ Yet he who is injuring his associate, thrusts him away, saying 'Who constitutes you a chief and a justice over us? ²⁸ You do not want to despatch me in the manner you despatched the Egyptian yesterday?' ²⁹ Now Moses fled at this word, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begets two sons. ³⁰ And, at the completion of forty years, a messenger was seen by him in the wilderness of mount Sinai, in the flame of a thorn bush fire. ³¹ Now Moses, perceiving it, marvels at the vision. Yet, at his approaching to consider it, the voice of the Lord came: ³² 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob'. Now Moses, coming to be in a tremor, dared not consider it. ³³ Now the Lord said to him, 'Loose the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy land. ³⁴ In perceiving I perceived the ill treatment of My people who are in Egypt, and their groaning I hear, and I descended to extricate them. And now, come hither that I should be dispatching you into Egypt.' ³⁵ This Moses, whom they disown, saying, 'Who constitutes you a chief and a justice over us?' this one has God commissioned to be a chief as well as a redeemer, a justice, with the hand of the messenger who was seen by him in the thorn bush. ³⁶ This man led them out, doing miracles and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. ³⁷ This is the Moses who says to the sons of Israel: 'A Prophet will God be raising up to you from among your brethren, as me.' ³⁸ This is he who came to be in the ecclesia in the wilderness with the messenger, who speaks to him in mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who receives the living oracles to give to you, ³⁹ to whom our fathers are not willing to become obedient, but they thrust him away, and turned to Egypt in their hearts, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us - for this Moses, the man who led us out of the land of Egypt, we are not aware what became of him.' ⁴¹ And they make a calf in those days, and they led up the sacrifice to the idol, and made merry with the works of their hands. ⁴² Now God turns and gives them up to be offering divine service to the host of heaven, according as it is written in the scroll of the prophets: 'Do you not offer Me slain victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel? ⁴³ And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the constellation of your god Raiphan, the models which you make, to worship them. And I shall be exiling you beyond Babylon.' ⁴⁴ The tabernacle of the testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, according as He prescribes, Who speaks to Moses, to make it according to the model which he had seen, ⁴⁵ which also our fathers who succeed him, with Joshua, led into the tenure of the nations, whom God thrusts out from the face of our fathers, till the days of David, ⁴⁶ who found favor before God. And he requests that he may find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷ Yet Solomon builds Him a house. ⁴⁸ But the Most High is not dwelling in what is made by hands, according as the prophet is saying, ⁴⁹ 'Heaven is My throne, yet the earth is a footstool for My feet. What kind of house shall be built for Me?' the Lord is saying, 'or what is the place of My stopping? ⁵⁰ Is it not My hand that does all these things?' ⁵¹ Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in your hearts and ears, you are ever clashing with the holy spirit! As your fathers, you also! ⁵² Which of the prophets do not your fathers persecute? And they kill those who announce before concerning the coming of the Just One, of Whom now you became the traitors and murderers - ⁵³ who got the law for a mandate of messengers and do not maintain it! ⁵⁴ Now, hearing these things, they were harrowed in their hearts, and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ Now possessing the fullness of faith and holy spirit, looking intently into heaven, he perceived the glory of God, and Jesus, standing at the right hand of God, ⁵⁶ and said, "Lo! I am beholding the heavens opened up, and the Son of Mankind standing at the right hand of God." ⁵⁷ Now, crying with a loud voice, they pressed their ears and rush on him with one accord. ⁵⁸ And, casting him out, outside of the city, they pelted him with stones. And the witnesses put off their garments at the feet of a young man called Saul. ⁵⁹ And they pelted Stephen with stones, while he is invoking and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" ⁶⁰ Now, kneeling, he cries with a loud voice, "Lord, Thou shouldst not stand against them this sin!" And saying this, he was put to repose.