Parallel Bible results for "acts 7"

Acts 7

Good News Translation GNT

1 The High Priest asked Stephen, "Is this true?"

2 Stephen answered, "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! Before our ancestor Abraham had gone to live in Haran, the God of glory appeared to him in Mesopotamia

3 and said to him, "Leave your family and country and go to the land that I will show you.'

4 And so he left his country and went to live in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God made him move to this land where you now live.

5 God did not then give Abraham any part of it as his own, not even a square foot of ground, but God promised to give it to him, and that it would belong to him and to his descendants. At the time God made this promise, Abraham had no children.

6 This is what God said to him: "Your descendants will live in a foreign country, where they will be slaves and will be badly treated for four hundred years.

7 But I will pass judgment on the people that they will serve, and afterward your descendants will come out of that country and will worship me in this place.'

8 Then God gave to Abraham the ceremony of circumcision as a sign of the covenant. So Abraham circumcised Isaac a week after he was born; Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons, the famous ancestors of our race.

9 "Jacob's sons became jealous of their brother Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him

10 and brought him safely through all his troubles. When Joseph appeared before the king of Egypt, God gave him a pleasing manner and wisdom, and the king made Joseph governor over the country and the royal household.

11 Then there was a famine all over Egypt and Canaan, which caused much suffering. Our ancestors could not find any food,

12 and when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, on their first visit there.

13 On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and the king of Egypt came to know about Joseph's family.

14 So Joseph sent a message to his father Jacob, telling him and the whole family, seventy-five people in all, to come to Egypt.

15 Then Jacob went to Egypt, where he and his sons died.

16 Their bodies were taken to Shechem, where they were buried in the grave which Abraham had bought from the clan of Hamor for a sum of money.

17 "When the time drew near for God to keep the promise he had made to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had grown much larger.

18 At last a king who did not know about Joseph began to rule in Egypt.

19 He tricked our ancestors and was cruel to them, forcing them to put their babies out of their homes, so that they would die.

20 It was at this time that Moses was born, a very beautiful child. He was cared for at home for three months,

21 and when he was put out of his home, the king's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

22 He was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in words and deeds.

23 "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to find out how his fellow Israelites were being treated.

24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his help and took revenge on the Egyptian by killing him

25 (He thought that his own people would understand that God was going to use him to set them free, but they did not understand.)

26 The next day he saw two Israelites fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. "Listen, men,' he said, "you are fellow Israelites; why are you fighting like this?'

27 But the one who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside. "Who made you ruler and judge over us?' he asked.

28 "Do you want to kill me, just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?'

29 When Moses heard this, he fled from Egypt and went to live in the land of Midian. There he had two sons.

30 "After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

31 Moses was amazed by what he saw, and went near the bush to get a better look. But he heard the Lord's voice:

32 "I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and dared not look.

33 The Lord said to him, "Take your sandals off, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

34 I have seen the cruel suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans, and I have come down to set them free. Come now; I will send you to Egypt.'

35 "Moses is the one who was rejected by the people of Israel. "Who made you ruler and judge over us?' they asked. He is the one whom God sent to rule the people and set them free with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush.

36 He led the people out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.

37 Moses is the one who said to the people of Israel, "God will send you a prophet, just as he sent me, and he will be one of your own people.'

38 He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God's living messages to pass on to us.

39 "But our ancestors refused to obey him; they pushed him aside and wished that they could go back to Egypt.

40 So they said to Aaron, "Make us some gods who will lead us. We do not know what has happened to that man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.'

41 It was then that they made an idol in the shape of a bull, offered sacrifice to it, and had a feast in honor of what they themselves had made.

42 So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: "People of Israel! It was not to me that you slaughtered and sacrificed animals for forty years in the desert.

43 It was the tent of the god Molech that you carried, and the image of Rephan, your star god; they were idols that you had made to worship. And so I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.'

44 "Our ancestors had the Tent of God's presence with them in the desert. It had been made as God had told Moses to make it, according to the pattern that Moses had been shown.

45 Later on, our ancestors who received the tent from their fathers carried it with them when they went with Joshua and took over the land from the nations that God drove out as they advanced. And it stayed there until the time of David.

46 He won God's favor and asked God to allow him to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

47 But it was Solomon who built him a house.

48 "But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands; as the prophet says,

49 "Heaven is my throne, says the Lord, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house would you build for me? Where is the place for me to live in?

50 Did not I myself make all these things?'

51 "How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!

52 Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.

53 You are the ones who received God's law, that was handed down by angels - yet you have not obeyed it!"

54 As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger.

55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at the right side of God.

56 "Look!" he said. "I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!"

57 With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once,

58 threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul.

59 They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

60 He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!" He said this and died.

World English Bible WEB

1 The high priest said, "Are these things so?"

2 He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

3 and said to him, 'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.'

4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.

5 He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child.

6 God spoke thus, that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

7 'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.'

8 He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

9 "The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him,

10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

11 Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.

12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the first time.

13 On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's race was revealed to Pharaoh.

14 Joseph sent, and called Jacob, his father, to him, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.

15 Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,

16 and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor of Shechem.

17 "But as the time of the promise came close which God swore to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

18 until there arose a different king, who didn't know Joseph.

19 The same dealt slyly with our race, and mistreated our fathers, that they should throw out their babies, so that they wouldn't stay alive.

20 At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father's house.

21 When he was thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.

22 Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.

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

24 Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian.

25 He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn't understand.

26 The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one to another?'

27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

28 Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

29 Moses fled at this saying, and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

30 "When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him,

32 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Moses trembled, and dared not look.

33 The Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.'

35 "This Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' -- God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36 This man led them forth, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

37 This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet to you from among your brothers, like me.'

38 This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,

39 to whom our fathers wouldn't be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

40 saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

41 They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

42 But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

43 You took up the tent of Moloch, The star of your god Rephan, The figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'

44 "Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses appointed, that he should make it according to the pattern that he had seen.

45 Which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David,

46 who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

47 But Solomon built him a house.

48 However, the Most High doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

49 'heaven is my throne, And the earth the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build me?' says the Lord; 'Or what is the place of my rest?

50 Didn't my hand make all these things?'

51 "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

52 Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

53 You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn't keep it!"

54 Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

56 and said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!"

57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.

58 They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit!"

60 He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them!" When he had said this, he fell asleep.