²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He assembled seventy of the leaders and placed them around the Tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit he had given to Moses and gave it to the seventy leaders. When the spirit came on them, they began to shout like prophets, but not for long.

²⁶ Two of the seventy leaders, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp and had not gone out to the Tent. There in the camp the spirit came on them, and they too began to shout like prophets. ²⁷ A young man ran out to tell Moses what Eldad and Medad were doing.

²⁸ Then Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' helper since he was a young man, spoke up and said to Moses, “Stop them, sir!”

²⁹ Moses answered, “Are you concerned about my interests? I wish that the Lord would give his spirit to all his people and make all of them shout like prophets!” ³⁰ Then Moses and the seventy leaders of Israel went back to camp.

^36 (A)He led the people out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. ^37 (B)Moses is the one who said to the people of Israel, ‘God will send you a prophet, just as he sent me,^[a] and he will be one of your own people.’ ^38 (C)He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God's living messages to pass on to us.

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him; they pushed him aside and wished that they could go back to Egypt. ^40 (D)So they said to Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who will lead us. We do not know what has happened to that man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ ^41 (E)It was then that they made an idol in the shape of a bull, offered sacrifice to it, and had a feast in honor of what they themselves had made. ^42 (F)So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

^44 (G)“Our ancestors had the Tent of God's presence with them in the desert. It had been made as God had told Moses to make it, according to the pattern that Moses had been shown. ^45 (H)Later on, our ancestors who received the tent from their fathers carried it with them when they went with Joshua and took over the land from the nations that God drove out as they advanced. And it stayed there until the time of David. ^46 (I)He won God's favor and asked God to allow him to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[b] 47 (J)}But it was Solomon who built him a house.

⁴⁸ “But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands; as the prophet says,

^51 (L)“How stubborn you are!” Stephen went on to say. “How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit! ⁵² Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. ⁵³ You are the ones who received God's law, that was handed down by angels—yet you have not obeyed it!”

The Twelve Apostles^(A)

10 Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. ² These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Patriot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

The Mission of the Twelve^(B)

⁵ These twelve men were sent out by Jesus with the following instructions: “Do not go to any Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. ⁶ Instead, you are to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. ⁷ Go and preach, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is near!’ ⁸ Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons. You have received without paying, so give without being paid. ⁹ Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper money in your pockets; ^10 (C)do not carry a beggar's bag for the trip or an extra shirt or shoes or a walking stick. Workers should be given what they need.