Acts 7:1-8
Contemporary English Version
Stephen's Speech
7 The high priest asked Stephen, “Are they telling the truth about you?”
2 (A) Stephen answered:
Friends, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he had moved to Haran. 3 God told him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to a land that I will show you.” 4 (B) Then Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.
After his father died, Abraham came and settled in this land where you now live. 5 (C) God didn't give him any part of it, not even a square meter. But God did promise to give it to him and his family forever, even though Abraham didn't have any children. 6 (D) God said Abraham's descendants would live for a while in a foreign land. There they would be slaves and would be mistreated 400 years. 7 (E) But he also said, “I will punish the nation that makes them slaves. Then later they will come and worship me in this place.”
8 (F) God said to Abraham, “Every son in each family must be circumcised to show you have kept your agreement with me.” So when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him. Later, Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons.
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