1 ¶ Then the high priest asked, Are these things so?

2 And Stephen replied, Men, brethren, and fathers, listen; The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,

3 And said to him, Leave your country, and your relatives, and go to the land that I will show you.

4 So he left the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran: and after his father died, God sent him from there to this land, in which you now live.

5 But he did not give him any inheritance in it, no, not a foot of space: yet although he had no child, he promised that he would give it to him, and to his offspring, for a possession.

6 And God told him this, That his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land; and that they would enslave them, and mistreat them for four hundred years.

7 And God said, I will judge the nation to whom they will be in bondage: and after that they will come out, and serve me in this place.

8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob; and Jacob fathered the twelve patriarchs.

9 And the patriarchs, motivated by envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,

10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

11 Then a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering: and our fathers could find no food.

12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.

13 And on their second visit Joseph revealed himself to his brethren; and Joseph’s family was made known to Pharaoh.

14 Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob, and his entire family, seventy-five souls in all.

15 So Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died,

16 And were carried over into Shechem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor in Shechem.

17 ¶ But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise, that God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

18 Until another king arose, who did not know Joseph.

19 The same dealt treacherously with our people, and treated our fathers evilly, forcing them to throw out their babies, so that they might not live.

20 At that time Moses was born, and was beautiful in God’s sight, and nourished in his father’s house for three months:

21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him, and brought him up as her own son.

22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in speech and in actions.

23 And when he was forty years old, he decided to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

24 And seeing one of them being mistreated, he defended him, and avenged the one being oppressed, by smiting the Egyptian:

25 For he assumed that his brethren would understand that God would deliver them through him: but they did not understand.

26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they fought, and sought to reconcile them, saying, Men, you are brethren; why are you doing wrong to one another?

27 But the man who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

28 Will you kill me, like you did the Egyptian yesterday?

29 Upon hearing this Moses fled, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

30 ¶ And after forty years had gone by, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush.

31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight: and as he went closer to observe it, the voice of the Lord came to him,

32 Saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and dared not look.

33 Then the Lord said to him, Take off your shoes: for the place where you stand is holy ground.

34 Seeing, I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you into Egypt.

35 God sent this same Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36 He led them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

37 This is that Moses, who told the children of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; you must listen to him.

38 This is he, who was in the congregation in the desert together with the angel that spoke to him on mount Sinai, and with our forefathers: who received living words to give to us:

39 But our fathers refused to obey him, and thrust him away, and in their hearts turned back again to Egypt,

40 Saying to Aaron, Make us gods who will go before us: as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

41 And at that time they made a calf, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and celebrated in honor of what their hands had made.

42 ¶ Then God turned away, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O house of Israel, did you offer me slain beasts and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness?

43 But, you have lifted up the shrine of Moloch, and the star of your god Rephan, figures that you made to worship: therefore I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

44 Our ancestors had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as God, speaking to Moses, directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

45 Which our forefathers in turn brought into this land with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, until the time of David;

46 Who found favor before God, and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

47 But it was Solomon who built him a house.

48 Nevertheless the most High does not live in temples made with hands; as the prophet says,

49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord: or where is my resting place?

50 Have not my hands made all these things?

51 ¶ You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.

52 Was there ever a prophet that your fathers did not persecute? they even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One; of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers:

53 Who have received the law as delivered by angels, and have not kept it.

54 ¶ When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and furious, and they gnashed their teeth because of him.

55 But Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, gazed intently into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

57 At this they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and rushed at him as a group,

58 And dragged him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul.

59 And as they stoned Stephen, he called upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.