Stephen’s Speech
1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so? ”
2
And Stephen said:
1“Brothers and fathers, hear me.
2The God
3of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia,
4before he lived in Haran,
3
and said to him,
5‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you. ’
4
6Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And
7after his father died,
8God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
5
Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised
9to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him,
10though he had no child.
6
And God spoke to this effect—that
11his offspring would
12be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them
13four hundred years.
7
‘But
14I will judge the nation that they serve, ’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out
15and worship me in this place. ’
8
And
16he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And
17so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and
18circumcised him on the eighth day, and
19Isaac became the father of Jacob, and
20Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
9
“And the patriarchs,
21jealous of Joseph,
22sold him into Egypt; but
23God was with him
10
and rescued him out of all his afflictions and
24gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
25who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
11
Now
26there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
12
27But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit.
13
And
28on the second visit
29Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and
30Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.
14
And
31Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred,
32seventy-five persons in all.
15
And
33Jacob went down into Egypt, and
34he died, he
35and our fathers,
16
and
36they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that
37Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17
“But
38as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham,
39the people increased and multiplied in Egypt
18
until there arose over Egypt another king
40who did not know Joseph.
19
41He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants,
42so that they would not be kept alive.
20
43At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house,
21
and
44when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.