Acts 7:19-53

New International Version

¹⁹ He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.^(A)

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.^[a] For three months he was cared for by his family.^{(B) 21} When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.^{(C) 22} Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians^(D) and was powerful in speech and action.

²³ “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶ 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?’

²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?^{(E) 28} Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[b] 29} When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.^(F)

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:^{(G) 32} ‘I am the God of your fathers,^(H) the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’^[c] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.^(I)

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.^{(J) 34} 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.’^[d](K)

³⁵ “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’^(L) He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ He led them out of Egypt^(M) and performed wonders and signs^(N) in Egypt, at the Red Sea^(O) and for forty years in the wilderness.^(P)

³⁷ “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’^{[e](Q) 38} He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel^(R) who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors;^(S) and he received living words^(T) to pass on to us.^(U)

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.^{(V) 40} 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!’^{[f](W) 41} 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.^{(X) 42} But God turned away from them^(Y) and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars.^(Z) This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law^(AB) with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.^{(AC) 45} 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.^(AD) It remained in the land until the time of David,^{(AE) 46} who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[h](AF) 47} But it was Solomon who built a house for him.^(AG)

⁴⁸ “However, the Most High^(AH) does not live in houses made by human hands.^(AI) As the prophet says:

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people!^(AL) Your hearts^(AM) and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! ⁵² Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?^(AN) They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him^(AO)— ⁵³ you who have received the law that was given through angels^(AP) but have not obeyed it.”