1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:

“Brothers and fathers, hear me. ^xThe God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ^y‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no ^zinheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but ^apromised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, ^bthough he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that ^chis offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them ^dfour hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and ^eworship me in this place.’ 8 And he gave him ^fthe covenant of circumcision. And so ^gAbraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and ^hIsaac became the father of Jacob, and ⁱJacob of the twelve patriarchs.

9 “And the patriarchs, ^jjealous of Joseph, ^ksold him into Egypt; but ^lGod was ^mwith him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him ⁿfavor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 ^oNow there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 ^pBut when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit ^qJoseph made himself known to his brothers, and ^rJoseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 ^sAnd Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and ^the died, he and ^uour fathers, 16 and they were ^vcarried back to Shechem and laid in ^wthe tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver ^xfrom the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, ^ythe people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until ^zthere arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 ^aHe dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to ^bexpose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time ^cMoses was born; and he was ^dbeautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, 21 and ^ewhen he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was ^finstructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was ^gmighty in his words and deeds.

23 ^h“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 ⁱAnd on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he ^jbecame the father of two sons.