Acts 7:38-60
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
38 He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to us.(A) 39 Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’(B) 41 At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands.(C) 42 But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices
forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?(D)
43 No; you took along the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’
44 “Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God[a] directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.(E) 45 Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the peoples whom God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David,(F) 46 who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.[b](G) 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands;[c] as the prophet says,(H)
49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?(I)
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.(J) 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.(K) 53 You are the ones who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”(L)
The Stoning of Stephen
54 When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.[d] 55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.(M) 56 “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”(N) 57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.(O) 59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”(P) 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.[e](Q)
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