ACV - Acts - 7

7:1  And the high priest said, Are these things so?

7:2  And he said, Men! Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran.

7:3  And he said to him, Go forth out of thy land, and from thy kinfolk, and come into a land that I will show thee.

7:4  Then after coming out of the land of the Chaldeans, he dwelt in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God resettled him in this land in which ye now dwell.

7:5  And he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a footstep. And he promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, although there was no child by him.

7:6  And God spoke thus: His seed would be alien in a foreign land, and they would enslave and mistreat them four hundred years.

7:7  And I will judge the nation to whomever they will be in bondage, God said, and after these things they will come forth and serve me in this place.

7:8  And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so he begot Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. And Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

7:9  And the patriarchs, being envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. And God was with him,

7:10  and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he appointed him governor over Egypt and his entire house.

7:11  Now a famine came on all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance.

7:12  But when Jacob heard of grain being in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the first time.

7:13  And during the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's race became manifest to Pharaoh.

7:14  And Joseph having sent forth, he summoned Jacob his father. And all his kinfolk, in souls, were seventy-five.

7:15  And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he perished, he and our fathers.

7:16  And they were carried into Shechem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a price of silver from the sons of Hamor of Shechem.

7:17  But as the time of the promise approached that God swore to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

7:18  until another king arose who had not known Joseph.

7:19  This man, who cunningly victimized our race, mistreated our fathers to make their infants be placed outside in order not to keep alive.

7:20  During which time Moses was born (and he was well-formed by God) who was reared three months in his father's house.

7:21  And when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter took him away, and reared him for a son to herself.

7:22  And Moses was reared in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

7:23  But when a forty year time span was fulfilled by him, it came into his heart to go help his brothers, the sons of Israel.

7:24  And after seeing a certain man suffering wrong, he defended him, and did vengeance for the man being oppressed, having smitten the Egyptian.

7:25  And he presumed his brothers understood that, by his hand, God was giving them salvation, but they did not understand.

7:26  And on the next day he was seen by them as they fought, and he was reconciling them for peace, having said, Men, ye are brothers. Why is it that ye wrong each other?

7:27  But the man doing wrong to his neighbor thrust him away, having said, Who appointed thee a ruler and a judge over us?

7:28  Do thou not want to kill me, as thou killed the Egyptian yesterday?

7:29  And Moses fled at this word, and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons.

7:30  And forty years having been fulfilled, an agent of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire of a bush.

7:31  And when Moses looked, he wondered at the sight. And as he approached to examine, a voice of the Lord came to him,

7:32  I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But Moses, who developed trembling, dared not examine.

7:33  And the Lord said to him, Put off the shoes from thy feet, for the place on which thou stand is holy ground.

7:34  Having looked, I saw the oppression of my people in Egypt, and I heard their groaning, and I came down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.

7:35  This Moses whom they refused, having said, Who appointed thee a ruler and a judge? This man God sent, a ruler and a liberator by the hand of the agent who appeared to him in the bush.

7:36  This man brought them forth after performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

7:37  This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you, from your brothers, like me.

7:38  This is he who became in the congregation in the wilderness with the agent who spoke to him on the mount Sinai, and of our fathers who received living oracles to give to us.

7:39  To whom our fathers did not want to become obedient, but they thrust away, and turned back in their heart to Egypt,

7:40  after saying to Aaron, Make gods for us who will lead us. For this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has happened to him.

7:41  And they made a calf in those days, and offered up sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

7:42  But God turned, and gave them over to serve the host of heaven, just as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did ye offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

7:43  And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, the images that ye made to worship them. And I will deport you beyond Babylon.

7:44  The tabernacle of the testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, just as he arranged (he who spoke to Moses), to make it according to the pattern that he had seen.

7:45  Which also our fathers, having received in succession, brought in with Joshua into the possession of the nations whom God drove out from the presence of our fathers, until the days of David

7:46  who found favor in the sight of God. And he asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

7:47  But Solomon built him a house.

7:48  However the Most High does not dwell in man-made temples, just as the prophet says,

7:49  The heaven is to me a throne, and the earth a footstool of my feet. What house will ye build for me? says the Lord. Or what is the place of my rest?

7:50  Did not my hand make all these things?

7:51  Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers, ye also.

7:52  Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold about the coming of the Righteous man, of whom ye now have become betrayers and murderers,

7:53  who received the law at directions of agents, and did not keep it.

7:54  Now when they heard these things, they were split with a saw in their hearts, and they gnashed their teeth against him.

7:55  But being full of the Holy Spirit, having gazed into heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

7:56  And he said, Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

7:57  But they, having cried out in a great voice, held their ears shut, and rushed upon him with one accord.

7:58  And having expelled him out of the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments beside the feet of a young man called Saul.

7:59  And they stoned Stephen, who was calling and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

7:60  And having knelt down, he cried out in a great voice, Lord, place not this sin to them. And after saying this, he slept.