Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

7 Then the high priest asked, `Is this true?'

² Stephen replied, `Men, brothers and fathers, listen to me. When our father Abraham was in the country of Mesopotamia, before he lived in the country of Haran, the God who is great and wonderful came to him.

³ God said, "Leave your country and your family and come to the country that I will show you."

⁴ Then Abraham came out of the country of the Chaldeans and lived for a while in the country of Haran. After his father died, God led him from there to this country where you are living now.

⁵ But God did not give any of the land to Abraham, not even a small part. But he promised that the land would belong to him. After him it would belong to his children, even though he did not have a child then.

⁶ This is what God told Abraham. He told him that his children would travel and live in another land. They would be slaves to the people there. They would have a hard time for four hundred years.

⁷ And God said, "I will judge the people who make them slaves. After that, they will come out of that land and serve me here."

⁸ God made the agreement of circumcision with Abraham. Abraham had a son Isaac. He made the mark of circumcision on the child's body and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac had a son Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons who were our fathers.

⁹ `Because they were jealous, they sold Joseph to be a slave in the country of Egypt. But God was with Joseph.

¹⁰ He took him out of all his troubles. He blessed him and made him wise in the eyes of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh made him president in Egypt and a ruler over all the people of his house.

¹¹ For a long, long time there was no rain in Egypt and Canaan. And so there was very little food. This caused much trouble. Our fathers had nothing to eat.

¹² Then Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt. He sent his sons on their first trip to buy some. They were our fathers of long ago.

¹³ The second time they went, Joseph told his brothers who he was. And Pharaoh found out who Joseph's family was.

¹⁴ Then Joseph sent for Jacob his father and all the family to come. There were seventy-five people.

¹⁵ So Jacob went to Egypt. There he and our fathers died.

¹⁶ They were taken back to the place called Shechem and buried. Abraham had bought a grave from the family of Hamor in Shechem. He had paid money for it.