7 Then the High Priest said, “Are these things so?”

² And he said, “You men! Brothers and fathers! Listen! The God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia (before he lived in Haran),

³ “and said to him, ‘Come out of our country, and from your kindred. And come into the land which I shall show you.’

⁴ “Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And after his father died, God brought him from there into this land wherein you now dwell.

⁵ “And He gave him no inheritance in it; no, not the breadth of a foot. Yet, He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child.

⁶ “But God said this: ‘that his seed would be a sojourner in a strange land. And that they would keep it in bondage and mistreat it four hundred years.

⁷ ‘But the nation to whom they shall be in bondage, I will judge,’ says God, ‘And after that, they shall come forth and serve Me in this place.’

⁸ “He also gave him the Covenant of Circumcision. And Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob the twelve Patriarchs.

⁹ “And the Patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him,

¹⁰ “and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, King of Egypt; who made him Governor over Egypt and his whole house.

¹¹ “Then there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, so that our fathers found no sustenance.

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

¹³ “And the second time, Joseph was known by his brethren, and Joseph’s kindred were made known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴ “Then Joseph had his father and all his kindred brought, even seventy-five souls.

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

¹⁶ “And they were removed to Shechem and were put in the sepulcher which Abraham had bought for money from the sons of Hamor of Shechem.

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

¹⁸ “Until another King arose who did not know Joseph.

¹⁹ “The same dealt craftily with our kindred, and mistreated our fathers, and made them abandon their young children, so that they would not live.

²⁰ “At the same time, Moses was born, and was acceptable to God. He was nursed in his father’s house for three months.

²¹ “And when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and brought him up as her own son.

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

²³ “Now when he was fully forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

²⁴ “And when he saw one of them being wronged, he defended him, and avenged the one who had been harmed, and killed the Egyptian.

²⁵ “For he assumed that his brothers would have understood that God, by His hand, would give them deliverance. But they did not understand that.

²⁶ “And the next day, he showed himself to them as they fought, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’

²⁷ “But the one who had wronged his neighbor thrust him away, saying, ‘Who made you a prince and a judge over us?

²⁸ ‘Will you kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁹ “Then Moses fled at those words, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

³⁰ “And after forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire appeared to him in a bush, in the wilderness of mount Sinai.

³¹ “And when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to examine it, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying,

³² ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses trembled, and dared not look at it.

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your shoes from your feet. For the place where you stand is Holy Ground.

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

³⁵ “This Moses whom they forsook, saying, ‘Who made you a prince and a judge?’ The same man God sent as a prince and a deliverer, by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶ “He brought them out, doing wonders and miracles in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, forty years.

³⁷ “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God shall raise up to you a Prophet like me from your brothers. Him you shall hear.

³⁸ “This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness, with the Angel which spoke to him on mount Sinai, and with our fathers who received the living oracles to give to us;

³⁹ “whom our fathers would not obey, but refused, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

⁴⁰ ‘saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that may go before us. For we do not know what has become of this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt.’

⁴¹ “And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

⁴² “Then God turned Himself away, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the Book of the Prophets, ‘O House of Israel, have you offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness?

⁴³ “‘And you took up the Tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan - figures which you made to worship them. Therefore, I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed; speaking to Moses so that he would make it according to the pattern which he had seen,

⁴⁵ “which our fathers also received and (with Joshua) brought into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before our fathers until the days of David,

⁴⁶ “who found favor before God, and desired that he might find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷ “But Solomon built him a house.

⁴⁸ “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands. As says the Prophet,

⁴⁹ ‘Heaven is My throne. And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me?’, says the Lord. ‘Or, what place is it that I should rest in?

⁵⁰ ‘Has not My hand made all these things?’

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked! With uncircumcised hearts and ears! You have always resisted the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you!

⁵² “Which of the Prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they have killed those who foretold of the coming of the Just One, Of Whom you are now the betrayers and murderers.

⁵³ “Who have received the law by the ordinance of angels and have not kept it.”

⁵⁴ And when they heard these things, they were cut to the quick. And they gnashed at him with their teeth.

⁵⁵ But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked steadfastly into Heaven, and saw the glory of God; and Jesus, standing at the right hand of God,

⁵⁶ and said, “Behold, I see the heavens open! And the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷ Then they gave a shout with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him violently all at once,

⁵⁸ and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹ And they stoned Stephen, who called out, saying, “Lord Jesus! Receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰ And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, “Lord! Do not lay this sin to their charge!” And when he had spoken this, he slept.