New Testament in a Year

Stephen Defends Himself

7 Then the high priest asked, “Is this true?”

² Stephen replied:

“Listen, brothers and fathers!

“The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. ³ God^[a] told him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I’ll show you.’^{[b] 4} So he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country where you now live. ⁵ God^[c] gave him no property here,^[d] not even a foot of land,^[e] yet he promised to give it to him and to his descendants^[f] after him as a permanent possession, even though he had no child.

⁶ “This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people^[g] would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years. ⁷ ‘But I will punish the nation they serve,’ said God, ‘and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.’^[h]

⁸ Later, God^[i] gave Abraham^[j] the covenant of circumcision. Later, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered^[k] the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “Joseph’s brothers^[l] became jealous of him and sold Joseph as a slave^[m] in Egypt. However, God was with him ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler of Egypt and of his whole household.

¹¹ “But a famine spread throughout Egypt and Canaan, and with it great suffering, and our ancestors couldn’t find any food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors on their first trip. ¹³ On their second trip, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph introduced his family^[n] to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him in Egypt^[o]—75 persons in all. ¹⁵ So Jacob went down to Egypt. Then he and our ancestors died. ¹⁶ They were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought at a high price^[p] from Hamor’s descendants in Shechem.

¹⁷ “Now as the time approached for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people’s population increased a great deal in Egypt. ¹⁸ Eventually, a different king who had not known Joseph became ruler of Egypt.^{[q] 19} By shrewdly scheming against our people, he oppressed our ancestors and forced them to abandon their infants to the elements, so that they wouldn’t live.

²⁰ “At this time Moses was born. He was beautiful in the sight of God, and for three months he was cared for in his father’s house. ²¹ When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.