7 Then the chief priest asked Stephen, “Is all this true?”

2 [ref]And he replied, “My brothers and fathers, please listen. Our honoured God was seen by our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he moved to Haran 3 and he told him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives, and go to the place that I will show you.’ 4 [ref]So he left Chaldea and moved to Haran, and then after his father died, he moved again to this land where we now live. 5 [ref]Abraham hadn’t received any land here as an inheritance, in fact he’d never been near this land and nor did he have any children, yet God promised to give this entire country to him and his descendants. 6 [ref]And yet God also told him that his descendants would end up staying in another country where they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7 [ref]However God promised to punish the nation that enslaved them, and told him that in the end they would leave that place and serve him here in this country. 8 [ref]And he contracted with Abraham about being circumcised, and so when Abraham had Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day, and then Isaac went on to have Yacob, and Yacob to have the twelve tribal leaders.

9 [ref]Those brothers went on to become jealous of Yosef and sent him back into Egypt as a slave, but God was with him 10 [ref]and rescued him out of all his troubles there. Then God gave him wisdom and caused him to gain the favour of Far’oh (Pharaoh), the king of Egypt, who then appointed him as the ruler of all Egypt and over Far’oh’s own household. 11 [ref]Then a famine hit all Egypt and Canaan causing great distress and our ancestors were unable to find enough food. 12 But Yacob heard that grain was available in Egypt, so first, he sent off our tribal leaders. 13 [ref]On their second visit, Yosef revealed himself to them, and so Far’oh became aware of Yosef’s heritage. 14 [ref]Then Yosef sent for his father Yacob and all the extended family—some seventy-five of them. 15 [ref]So Yacob went to Egypt, where he and the twelve tribal leaders eventually died, 16 [ref]although their bodies were moved to Shechem where they were put into the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor.

17 [ref]But as the time limit promised to Abraham by God was getting closer, our people multiplied in Egypt 18 until another Far’oh Far’oh (Pharaoh)ended up ruling there who had never known Yosef. 19 [ref]He took advantage of us Jews and mistreated our ancestors, even forcing them apart from their own babies so they wouldn’t live. 20 [ref]Moses was born during that time and God considered him beautiful. He spent three months in his own father’s house 21 [ref]before being placed outside, from where Far’oh’s daughter took him and brought him up herself as her own son. 22 So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was a powerful speaker and project leader.

23 [ref]But when he hit forty, it entered his mind to visit his relatives, the Israelis. 24 When he noticed one of them being mistreated, he retaliated and while defending the oppressed man, he struck and killed the Egyptian. 25 He thought his relatives would understand that God was bringing salvation to them via him, but they didn’t see it that way. 26 So on the following day when he saw two of them quarrelling, he tried to resolve the situation by saying, ‘Men, you’re all brothers. Why are you injuring each other?’ 27 But the bullying one pushed him away and said, ‘Who made you the judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 [ref]When he heard that, Moses fled Egypt and became an exile in Midian where he eventually had two sons.

30 [ref]After another forty years, he was in the wilderness around Mount Sinai when he saw a messenger in the flame of a burning thorn bush. 31 Moses was amazed at the vision when he saw it, so he approached the bush to look more closely when he heard Yahweh’s voice saying, 32 ‘I am the god of your ancestors—the god of Abraham and of Isaac and of Yacob.’ At that point, Moses started trembling and was scared to go any closer to look, 33 but Yahweh said, ‘Take off your sandals, because the ground you’re standing on is dedicated to God. 34 I have noticed the mistreatment of my people in Egypt and heard their groaning and so I came down to rescue them, so now I’m going to send you back to Egypt.’

35 [ref]This was the same Moses that they had previously rejected and asked who had made him ruler and judge over them. Now God had indeed sent him as ruler and liberator by means of the messenger that he saw in the thorn bush. 36 [ref]So eventually Moses led them out of Egypt after doing miracles and signs of God’s power there, and then also at the Red Sea and during the forty years in the wilderness. 37 [ref]This same Moses told Israelis that in the future God would raise up another prophet like him from among them. 38 [ref]Now Moses was the person that led the assembly of people in the wilderness, was spoken to by one of God’s messengers on Mt. Sinai, and one of our ancestors that received living messages to pass on to us.

39 “Yet our ancestors didn’t want to obey that man, so they rejected him and started thinking about Egypt again, 40 [ref]saying to Aaron, ‘Make some gods for us to lead us because we’ve got no idea what happened to that Moses who led us out of Egypt.’ 41 [ref]So together they made a calf as an idol to bring sacrifices to, and they were pleased with what they’d achieved. 42 [ref]But God turned and allowed them to serve the heavenly armies, just as the prophets wrote,

‘It wasn’t me that you Israelis sacrificed to for those forty years in the wilderness.

43 You turned to Molech’s tent and Rephan’s star as your gods by making images of them to bow down to. So for that, I’ll send you all away into exile beyond Babylon.’

44 [ref]The tent of evidence was with our ancestors in the wilderness—made to the pattern that God had shown Moses. 45 [ref]Our ancestors then carried that tent into the land, having inherited it along with Joshua from the possession of the pagans which God drove out ahead of them. The tent remained there until the time of David 46 [ref]who found favour with God and requested to find a tent for the house of Yacob, 47 [ref]but it was Solomon who built the house for God to reside in.

48 However the highest one doesn’t actually live in structures made by people, but as the prophet wrote,

49 [ref]‘Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is where I place my feet.

How could you possibly build a suitable house for me?

50 Wasn’t it me that created everything?’

51 [ref]You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You’re always opposing the holy spirit just like your ancestors were. 52 Which one of the prophets wasn’t persecuted by your ancestors? Even the ones that foretold the coming of the righteous one were killed off by them in just the same way that you yourselves became his betrayers and murderers! 53 You had received the law under the direction of messengers, and yet you didn’t obey it.”