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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Acts 7 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/acts/7.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/acts/7-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Acts 7</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../acts/6.htm" title="Acts 6">◄</a> Acts 7 <a href="../acts/8.htm" title="Acts 8">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/acts/7.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Gen. 12:1">a</a></sup></span> </p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>“So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Gen. 15:13,14">b</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>“Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>“As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Exodus 1:8">c</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>“At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or was fair in the sight of God">d</a></sup></span> For three months he was cared for by his family. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>“When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>“But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Exodus 2:14">e</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Exodus 3:6">f</a></sup></span> Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Exodus 3:5,7,8,10">g</a></sup></span> </p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>“This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Deut. 18:15">h</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>“But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Exodus 32:1">i</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-41.htm"><b>41</b></a></span>That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-42.htm"><b>42</b></a></span>But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line1">“ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings</p><p class="line2">forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?</p> <p class="line1"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-43.htm"><b>43</b></a></span>You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek</p><p class="line2">and the star of your god Rephan,</p><p class="line2">the idols you made to worship.</p><p class="line1">Therefore I will send you into exile’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Amos 5:25-27 (see Septuagint)">j</a></sup></span> beyond Babylon.</p></div> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-44.htm"><b>44</b></a></span>“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-45.htm"><b>45</b></a></span>After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-46.htm"><b>46</b></a></span>who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Some early manuscripts the house of Jacob">k</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-47.htm"><b>47</b></a></span>But it was Solomon who built a house for him.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-48.htm"><b>48</b></a></span>“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:</p> <div class="stanza"><p class="line1"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-49.htm"><b>49</b></a></span>“ ‘Heaven is my throne,</p><p class="line2">and the earth is my footstool.</p><p class="line1">What kind of house will you build for me?</p><p class="attribution">says the Lord.</p><p class="line2">Or where will my resting place be?</p> <p class="line1"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-50.htm"><b>50</b></a></span>Has not my hand made all these things?’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Isaiah 66:1,2">l</a></sup></span> </p></div> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-51.htm"><b>51</b></a></span>“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-52.htm"><b>52</b></a></span>Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-53.htm"><b>53</b></a></span>you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”</p> <p class="sectionhead">The Stoning of Stephen</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-54.htm"><b>54</b></a></span>When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-55.htm"><b>55</b></a></span>But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-56.htm"><b>56</b></a></span>“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-57.htm"><b>57</b></a></span>At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-58.htm"><b>58</b></a></span>dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-59.htm"><b>59</b></a></span>While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/7-60.htm"><b>60</b></a></span>Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">3</span> <span class="footnotebot">Gen. 12:1</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">7</span> <span class="footnotebot">Gen. 15:13,14</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">18</span> <span class="footnotebot">Exodus 1:8</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">d</span> <span class="fnverse">20</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>was fair in the sight of God</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">e</span> <span class="fnverse">28</span> <span class="footnotebot">Exodus 2:14</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">f</span> <span class="fnverse">32</span> <span class="footnotebot">Exodus 3:6</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">g</span> <span class="fnverse">34</span> <span class="footnotebot">Exodus 3:5,7,8,10</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">h</span> <span class="fnverse">37</span> <span class="footnotebot">Deut. 18:15</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">i</span> <span class="fnverse">40</span> <span class="footnotebot">Exodus 32:1</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">j</span> <span class="fnverse">43</span> <span class="footnotebot">Amos 5:25-27 (see Septuagint)</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">k</span> <span class="fnverse">46</span> <span class="footnotebot">Some early manuscripts <i>the house of Jacob</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">l</span> <span class="fnverse">50</span> <span class="footnotebot">Isaiah 66:1,2</span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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