Bible Gateway passage: Acts 7:1-29 - New American Standard Bible 1995 (2024)

Stephen’s Defense

7The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

²And he said, “Hear me, ^(A)brethren and fathers! ^(B)The God of glory ^(C)appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in ^[a]Haran, ³and said to him, ‘^(D)Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ ^4(E)Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in ^[b]Haran. ^(F)From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. ⁵But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, ^(G)He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him. ⁶But ^(H)God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would ^[c]be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and ^(I)after that they will come out and ^[d]serve Me in this place.’ ⁸And He ^(J)gave him ^[e]the covenant of circumcision; and so ^(K)Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and ^(L)Isaac became the father of Jacob, and ^(M)Jacob of the twelve ^(N)patriarchs.

⁹“The patriarchs ^(O)became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, ¹⁰and rescued him from all his afflictions, and ^(P)granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹“Now ^(Q)a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers ^[f]could find no food. ¹²But ^(R)when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³On the second visit ^(S)Joseph ^[g]made himself known to his brothers, and ^(T)Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. ¹⁴Then ^(U)Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, ^(V)seventy-five ^[h](W)persons in all. ¹⁵And ^(X)Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. ¹⁶From there they were removed to ^[i](Y)Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of ^[j]Hamor in ^[k]Shechem.

¹⁷“But as the ^(Z)time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, ^(AA)the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸until ^(AB)there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. ¹⁹It was he who took ^(AC)shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would ^[l](AD)expose their infants and they would not survive. ²⁰It was at this time that ^(AE)Moses was born; and he was lovely ^[m]in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. ²¹And after he had been set outside, ^(AF)Pharaoh’s daughter ^[n]took him away and nurtured him as her own son. ²²Moses was educated in all ^(AG)the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. ²³But when he was approaching the age of forty, ^(AH)it entered his ^[o]mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. ²⁴And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them ^[p]deliverance ^[q]through him, but they did not understand. ^26(AI)On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?’ ²⁷But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘^(AJ)Who made you a ruler and judge over us? ^28(AK)You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ ²⁹At this remark, ^(AL)Moses fled and became an alien in the land of ^[r]Midian, where he ^(AM)became the father of two sons.

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