⁷ Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”

² This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.^{[a] 3} God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’^{[b] 4} So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.

The Call of Abram

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.

¹³ Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.

¹⁵ I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants^[a] as a permanent possession. ¹⁶ And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! ¹⁷ Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”

⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.^[a]” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.