Stephen's Address
1 "Is this true?" the high priest asked.
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"Brothers and fathers," he said, "listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,
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and said to him: Get out of your country and away from your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.
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"Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you now live.
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He didn't give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.
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God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for 400 years.
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I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship Me in this place.
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Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. This being so, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs.