17
The God of this people Isra'el chose our fathers. He made the people great during the time when they were living as aliens in Egypt and with a stretched-out arm he led them out of that land.
18
For some forty yearsm he took care of them in the desert,
19
and after he had destroyed seven nationsn in the land of Kena'an he gave their land to his people as an inheritance.
20
All this took about 450 years. After that, he gave them judges, o down to the prophet Sh'mu'el.
21
Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Sha'ul Ben-Kish, a man from the tribe of Binyamin. After forty years,
22
God removed him and raised up David as king for them, making his approval known with these words, 'I found David Ben-Yishai to be a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want.'
23
"In keeping with his promise, God has brought to Isra'el from this man's descendants a deliverer, Yeshua.
24
Now before the coming of Yeshua, Yochanan proclaimed to all the people of Isra'el an immersion in connection with turning to God from sin.
25
But as Yochanan was ending his work, he said, 'Who do you suppose I am? Well - I'm not! But after me is coming someone, the sandals of whose feet I am unworthy to untie.'
26
"Brothers! - sons of Avraham and those among you who are 'God-fearers'! It is to us that the message of this deliverance has been sent!
27
For the people living in Yerushalayim and their leaders did not recognize who Yeshua was or understand the message of the Prophets read every Shabbat, so they fulfilled that message by condemning him.