Israel Rebuked

2 Now ^(A)the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to ^(B)Bochim. And he said, “^(C)I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘^(D)I will never break My covenant with you, ² and as for you, ^(E)you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ^(F)you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not ^[a]obeyed Me; what is this thing that you have done? ³ Therefore I also said, ‘^(G)I will not drive them out from you; but they will ^[b]become ^(H)like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’” ⁴ Now when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people raised their voices and wept. ⁵ So they named that place ^[c]Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.

Joshua Dies

^6 (I)When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went, each one to his inheritance, to take possession of the land. ⁷ The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who ^[d]survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. ⁸ Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. ⁹ And they buried him in the territory of ^(J)his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and another generation rose up after them who ^(K)did not know the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel Serves the Baals

¹¹ Then the sons of Israel did ^(L)evil in the sight of the Lord and ^[e]served the ^(M)Baals, ¹² and ^(N)they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them; so they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ They abandoned the Lord and ^(O)served Baal and the Ashtaroth. ^14 (P)Then the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He handed them over to plunderers, and they plundered them; and ^(Q)He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand ^[f]against their enemies. ¹⁵ Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for ^[g]evil, as the Lord had spoken and ^(R)just as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

^16 (S)Then the Lord raised up judges ^[h]who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them. ¹⁷ Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they ^[i]committed infidelity with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way ^(T)in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do the same as their fathers. ¹⁸ And when the Lord raised up judges for them, ^(U)the Lord was with the judge and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was ^(V)moved to pity by their groaning because of those who tormented and oppressed them. ¹⁹ But it came about, when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their obstinate ways. ^20 (W)So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has violated My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice, ^21 (X)I in turn will no longer drive out from them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, ²² in order to ^(Y)test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers ^[j]did, or not.” ²³ So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not hand them over to Joshua.

Choosing of the Seven

6 Now ^[a]at this time, as the ^(A)disciples were ^(B)increasing in number, a complaint developed on the part of the ^[b](C)Hellenistic Jews against the native ^(D)Hebrews, because their ^(E)widows were being overlooked in ^(F)the daily serving of food. ² So the twelve summoned the ^[c]congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. ³ Instead, ^(G)brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, ^(H)full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. ⁴ But we will ^(I)devote ourselves to prayer and to the ^[d]ministry of the word.” ⁵ The ^[e]announcement found approval with the whole ^[f]congregation; and they chose ^(J)Stephen, a man ^(K)full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and ^(L)Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and ^[g]Nicolas, a ^[h](M)proselyte from ^(N)Antioch. ⁶ And they brought these men before the apostles; and after ^(O)praying, they ^(P)laid their hands on them.

^7 (Q)The word of God kept spreading; and ^(R)the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to ^(S)the faith.

⁸ And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great ^(T)wonders and ^[i]signs among the people. ⁹ But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both ^(U)Cyrenians and ^(V)Alexandrians, and some from ^(W)Cilicia and ^[j](X)Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. ¹⁰ But they were unable to ^[k]cope with his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking. ¹¹ Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹² And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they ^(Y)came up to him and dragged him away, and brought him ^[l]before ^(Z)the ^[m]Council. ¹³ They put forward ^(AA)false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop ^[n]speaking against this ^(AB)holy place and the Law; ¹⁴ for we have heard him say that ^(AC)this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and change ^(AD)the customs which Moses handed down to us.” ¹⁵ And all who were sitting in the ^[o](AE)Council stared at him, and they saw his face, which was like the face of an angel.