1
The high priest said to Stephen, "Are these things true?"
2
Stephen answered, "Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to Abraham, our ancestor, in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran.
3
God said to Abraham, 'Leave your country and your relatives, and go to the land I will show you.'
4
So Abraham left the country of Chaldea and went to live in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God sent him to this place where you now live.
5
God did not give Abraham any of this land, not even a foot of it. But God promised that he would give this land to him and his descendants, even before Abraham had a child.
6
This is what God said to him: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a land they don't own. The people there will make them slaves and will mistreat them for four hundred years.
7
But I will punish the nation where they are slaves. Then your descendants will leave that land and will worship me in this place.'