Acts 7:24-43  New International Version

²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?^{(A) 28} Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[a] 29} When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.^(B)

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:^{(C) 32} ‘I am the God of your fathers,^(D) the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’^[b] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.^(E)

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.^{(F) 34} I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’^[c](G)

³⁵ “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’^(H) He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ He led them out of Egypt^(I) and performed wonders and signs^(J) in Egypt, at the Red Sea^(K) and for forty years in the wilderness.^(L)

³⁷ “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’^{[d](M) 38} He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel^(N) who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors;^(O) and he received living words^(P) to pass on to us.^(Q)

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.^{(R) 40} They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’^{[e](S) 41} That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.^{(T) 42} But God turned away from them^(U) and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars.^(V) This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: