7:30 “After 4 forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert 5 of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 6 7:31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and when he approached to investigate, there came the voice of the Lord, 7:32 ‘I am the God of your forefathers, 7 the God of Abraham, Isaac, 8 and Jacob.’ 9 Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look more closely. 10 7:33 But the Lord said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 11 7:34 I have certainly seen the suffering 12 of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. 13 Now 14 come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 15 7:35 This same 16 Moses they had rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ 17 God sent as both ruler and deliverer 18 through the hand of the angel 19 who appeared to him in the bush. 7:36 This man led them out, performing wonders and miraculous signs 20 in the land of Egypt, 21 at 22 the Red Sea, and in the wilderness 23 for forty years. 7:37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, 24 ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ 25 7:38 This is the man who was in the congregation 26 in the wilderness 27 with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, 28 and he 29 received living oracles 30 to give to you. 31 7:39 Our 32 ancestors 33 were unwilling to obey 34 him, but pushed him aside 35 and turned back to Egypt in their hearts, 7:40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go in front of us, for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt 36 – we do not know what has happened to him!’ 37 7:41 At 38 that time 39 they made an idol in the form of a calf, 40 brought 41 a sacrifice to the idol, and began rejoicing 42 in the works of their hands. 43 7:42 But God turned away from them and gave them over 44 to worship the host 45 of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices 46 forty years in the wilderness, was it, 47 house of Israel? 7:43 But you took along the tabernacle 48 of Moloch 49 and the star of the 50 god Rephan, 51 the images you made to worship, but I will deport 52 you beyond Babylon.’ 53 7:44 Our ancestors 54 had the tabernacle 55 of testimony in the wilderness, 56 just as God 57 who spoke to Moses ordered him 58 to make it according to the design he had seen. 7:45 Our 59 ancestors 60 received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors, 61 until the time 62 of David. 7:46 He 63 found favor 64 with 65 God and asked that he could 66 find a dwelling place 67 for the house 68 of Jacob. 7:47 But Solomon built a house 69 for him. 7:48 Yet the Most High 70 does not live in houses made by human hands, 71 as the prophet says,
7:49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
and earth is the footstool for my feet.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is my resting place? 72
7:50 Did my hand 73 not make all these things?’ 74
7:51 “You stubborn 75 people, with uncircumcised 76 hearts and ears! 77 You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors 78 did! 7:52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors 79 not persecute? 80 They 81 killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, 82 whose betrayers and murderers you have now become! 83 7:53 You 84 received the law by decrees given by angels, 85 but you did not obey 86 it.” 87
7:54 When they heard these things, they became furious 88 and ground their teeth 89 at him. 7:55 But Stephen, 90 full 91 of the Holy Spirit, looked intently 92 toward heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing 93 at the right hand of God. 7:56 “Look!” he said. 94 “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 7:57 But they covered their ears, 95 shouting out with a loud voice, and rushed at him with one intent. 7:58 When 96 they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him, 97 and the witnesses laid their cloaks 98 at the feet of a young man named Saul. 7:59 They 99 continued to stone Stephen while he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 7:60 Then he fell 100 to his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” 101 When 102 he had said this, he died. 103