Parallel Bible results for "acts 7"

Acts 7

Third Millennium Bible TMB

1 Then said the high priest, "Are these things so?"

2 And Stephen said, "Men, brethren and fathers, hearken! The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,

3 and said unto him, `Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.'

4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran; and from thence, when his father was dead, He removed himself into this land wherein ye now dwell.

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

6 And God spoke in this way: that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should be brought into bondage and be mistreated for four hundred years.

7 `And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,' said God, `and after that shall they come forth, and serve Me in this place.'

8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot 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 all his house.

11 "Now there came a dearth and great affliction over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.

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

13 And on the second visit Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's kindred were made known unto Pharaoh.

14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

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

16 And they were carried back into Shechem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

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

18 until another king arose who knew not Joseph.

19 The same dealt craftily with our kindred and illtreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end that they might not live.

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

21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him as her own son.

22 And Moses became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

23 "And when he was fully forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian,

25 for he supposed his brethren would have understood how God, by his hand, would deliver them; but they understood not.

26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they were quarreling, and would have set them at one again, saying, `Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one another?'

27 But he that was doing his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, `Who made thee a ruler and judge over us?

28 Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?'

29 Then Moses fled at this saying and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons.

30 "And when forty years had expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire in a bush.

31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight; and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying,

32 `I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' Then Moses trembled and dared not behold.

33 Then said the Lord to him, `Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground.

34 I have seen, 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, I will send thee into Egypt.'

35 "This Moses whom they refused, saying, `Who made thee a ruler and a judge?' was the same whom God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36 He brought them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

37 This is that Moses who said unto the children of Israel, `A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear.'

38 This is he, who in the church in the wilderness was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers--the one who received the living oracles to give unto us,

39 to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

40 saying unto Aaron, `Make us gods to go before us; for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.'

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

42 "Then God turned, and gave them up to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: `O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices for the space of forty years in the wilderness?

43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, images which ye made to worship them. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'

44 "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed, speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen,

45 which also our fathers, who came later, brought with Joshua into the territory of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David.

46 David found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

47 But Solomon built Him a house.

48 "However, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet:

49 `Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will ye build Me? saith the Lord. Or what is the place of My rest?

50 Hath not My hand made all these things?'

51 "Ye stiffnecked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost! As your fathers did, so do ye!

52 Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they have slain those who foretold the coming of the Just One. Of Him ye have now been the betrayers and murderers,

53 ye who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it."

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

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

56 and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

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 whose name was Saul.

59 And they stoned Stephen as he called upon God and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

60 And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, charge not this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

GOD'S WORD Translation GW

1 Then the chief priest asked Stephen, "Is this true?"

2 Stephen answered, "Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God who reveals his glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia. This happened before Abraham lived in Haran.

3 God told him, 'Leave your land and your relatives. Go to the land that I will show you.'

4 "Then Abraham left the country of Chaldea and lived in the city of Haran. After his father died, God made him move from there to this land where we now live.

5 "Yet, God didn't give Abraham anything in this land to call his own, not even a place to rest his feet. But God promised to give this land to him and to his descendants, even though Abraham didn't have a child.

6 God told Abraham that his descendants would be foreigners living in another country and that the people there would make them slaves and mistreat them for 400 years.

7 God also told him, 'I will punish the people whom they will serve. After that, they will leave that country and worship me here.'

8 "God gave Abraham circumcision to confirm his promise. So when Abraham's son Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac did the same to his son Jacob, and Jacob did the same to his twelve sons (the ancestors of our tribes).

9 "Jacob's sons were jealous of their brother Joseph. They sold him into slavery, and he was taken to Egypt. But God was with Joseph

10 and rescued him from all his suffering. When Joseph stood in the presence of Pharaoh (the king of Egypt), God gave Joseph divine favor and wisdom so that he became ruler of Egypt and of Pharaoh's whole palace.

11 Then a famine throughout Egypt and Canaan brought a lot of suffering. Our ancestors couldn't find any food.

12 When Jacob heard that Egypt had food, he sent our ancestors there. That was their first trip.

13 On the second trip, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family.

14 Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his relatives, 75 people in all.

15 So Jacob went to Egypt, and he and our ancestors died there.

16 They were taken to Shechem for burial in the tomb that Abraham purchased in Shechem from Hamor's sons.

17 "When the time that God had promised to Abraham had almost come, the number of our people in Egypt had grown very large.

18 Then a different king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt.

19 This king was shrewd in the way he took advantage of our people. He mistreated our ancestors. He made them abandon their newborn babies outdoors, where they would die.

20 "At that time Moses was born, and he was a very beautiful child. His parents took care of him for three months.

21 When Moses was abandoned outdoors, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and raised him as her son.

22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in what he said and did.

23 When he was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

24 When he saw an Israelite man being treated unfairly by an Egyptian, he defended the Israelite. He took revenge by killing the Egyptian.

25 Moses thought his own people would understand that God was going to use him to give them freedom. But they didn't understand.

26 The next day Moses saw two Israelites fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. He said to them, 'Men, you are brothers. Why are you treating each other unfairly?'

27 "But one of the men pushed Moses aside. He asked Moses, 'Who made you our ruler and judge?

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

29 After he said that, Moses quickly left Egypt and lived in Midian as a foreigner. In Midian he fathered two sons.

30 "Forty years later, a messenger appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush in the desert of Mount Sinai.

31 Moses was surprised when he saw this. As he went closer to look at the bush, the voice of the Lord said to him,

32 'I am the God of your ancestors--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses began to tremble and didn't dare to look at the bush.

33 The Lord told him, 'Take off your sandals. The place where you're standing is holy ground.

34 I've seen how my people are mistreated in Egypt. I've heard their groaning and have come to rescue them. So now I'm sending you to Egypt.'

35 "This is the Moses whom the Israelites rejected by saying, 'Who made you our ruler and judge?' This is the one God sent to free them and to rule them with the help of the messenger who appeared to him in the bush.

36 This is the man who led our ancestors out of Egypt. He is the person who did amazing things and worked miracles in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for 40 years.

37 This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet, an Israelite like me.'

38 This is the Moses who was in the assembly in the desert. Our ancestors and the messenger who spoke to him on Mount Sinai were there with him. Moses received life-giving messages to give to us,

39 but our ancestors were not willing to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt.

40 They told Aaron, 'We don't know what has happened to this Moses, who led us out of Egypt. So make gods who will lead us.'

41 That was the time they made a calf. They offered a sacrifice to that false god and delighted in what they had made.

42 "So God turned away from them and let them worship the sun, moon, and stars. This is written in the book of the prophets: 'Did you bring me sacrifices and grain offerings in the desert for 40 years, nation of Israel?

43 You carried along the shrine of Moloch, the star of the god Rephan, and the statues you made for yourselves to worship. I will send you into exile beyond the city of Babylon.'

44 "In the desert our ancestors had the tent of God's promise. Moses built this tent exactly as God had told him. He used the model he had seen.

45 After our ancestors received the tent, they brought it into this land. They did this with Joshua's help when they took possession of the land from the nations that God forced out of our ancestors' way. This tent remained here until the time of David,

46 who won God's favor. David asked that he might provide a permanent place for the family of Jacob.

47 But Solomon was the one who built a house for God.

48 "However, the Most High doesn't live in a house built by humans, as the prophet says:

49 'The Lord says, "Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. What kind of house are you going to build for me? Where will I rest?

50 Didn't I make all these things?"'

51 "How stubborn can you be? How can you be so heartless and disobedient? You're just like your ancestors. They always opposed the Holy Spirit, and so do you!

52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors didn't persecute? They killed those who predicted that a man with God's approval would come. You have now become the people who betrayed and murdered that man.

53 You are the people who received Moses' Teachings, which were put into effect by angels. But you haven't obeyed those teachings."

54 As council members listened to Stephen, they became noticeably furious.

55 But Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked into heaven, saw God's glory, and Jesus in the position of authority that God gives.

56 So Stephen said, "Look, I see heaven opened and the Son of Man in the position of authority that God has given him!"

57 But the council members shouted and refused to listen. Then they rushed at Stephen with one purpose in mind,

58 and after they had thrown him out of the city, they began to stone him to death. The witnesses left their coats with a young man named Saul.

59 While council members were executing Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, welcome my spirit."

60 Then he knelt down and shouted, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them." After he had said this, he died.