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Then said the high priest, "Are these things so?"
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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,
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and said unto him, `Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.'
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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.
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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.
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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.
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`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.'
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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.