44_ACT_07_01 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

44_ACT_07_02 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

44_ACT_07_03 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.

44_ACT_07_04 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

44_ACT_07_05 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not [so much as] to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when [as yet] he had no child.

44_ACT_07_06 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat [them] evil four hundred years.

44_ACT_07_07 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.

44_ACT_07_08 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so [Abraham] begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac [begat] Jacob; and Jacob [begat] the twelve patriarchs.

44_ACT_07_09 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,

44_ACT_07_10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

44_ACT_07_11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.

44_ACT_07_12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

44_ACT_07_13 And at the second [time] Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.

44_ACT_07_14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to [him], and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

44_ACT_07_15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,

44_ACT_07_16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor [the father] of Sychem.

44_ACT_07_17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

44_ACT_07_18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.

44_ACT_07_19 The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

44_ACT_07_20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:

44_ACT_07_21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

44_ACT_07_22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

44_ACT_07_23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

44_ACT_07_24 And seeing one [of them] suffer wrong, he defended [him], and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:

44_ACT_07_25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

44_ACT_07_26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?

44_ACT_07_27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?

44_ACT_07_28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?

44_ACT_07_29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

44_ACT_07_30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

44_ACT_07_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,

44_ACT_07_32 [Saying], 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 durst not behold.

44_ACT_07_33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.

44_ACT_07_34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.

44_ACT_07_35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send [to be] a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

44_ACT_07_36 He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

44_ACT_07_37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

44_ACT_07_38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and [with] our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

44_ACT_07_39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust [him] from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

44_ACT_07_40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for [as for] this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

44_ACT_07_41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

44_ACT_07_42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship 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 [by the space of] forty years in the wilderness?

44_ACT_07_43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

44_ACT_07_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.

44_ACT_07_45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

44_ACT_07_46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

44_ACT_07_47 But Solomon built him an house.

44_ACT_07_48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

44_ACT_07_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?

44_ACT_07_50 Hath not my hand made all these things?

44_ACT_07_51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.

44_ACT_07_52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

44_ACT_07_53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept [it].

44_ACT_07_54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with [their] teeth.

44_ACT_07_55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

44_ACT_07_56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

44_ACT_07_57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

44_ACT_07_58 And cast [him] out of the city, and stoned [him]: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

44_ACT_07_59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon [God], and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

44_ACT_07_60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.