1
The high priest asked, "Are these accusations true?"
2
Stephen responded, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran.
3
God told him, ‘Leave your homeland and kin, and go to the land that I will show you.'
4
So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God had him resettle in this land where you now live.
5
God didn't give him an inheritance here, not even a square foot of land. However, God did promise to give the land as his possession to him and to his descendants, even though Abraham had no child.
6
God put it this way: His descendants will be strangers in a land that belongs to others, who will enslave them and abuse them for four hundred years.
7
And I will condemn the nation they serve as slaves, God said, and afterward they will leave that land and serve me in this place.
8
God gave him the covenant confirmed through circumcision. Accordingly, eight days after Isaac's birth, Abraham circumcised him. Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs.