Acts 7

¹⁹Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.

²⁰“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus answered. “I always taught in the synagogues and at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret.

⁶¹and declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

⁶²So the high priest stood up and asked Him, “Have You no answer? What are these men testifying against You?”

⁵⁸“We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days I will build another that is made without hands.’”

⁵⁹But even their testimony was inconsistent.

³³Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

³⁴“Are you saying this on your own,” Jesus asked, “or did others tell you about Me?”

¹³where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

¹⁴For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”

³¹And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.

³The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is heard over many waters.

⁷You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹Then the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

⁸By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.

⁷The Lord also told him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

³But I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac,

³³In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.

⁸You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites and Hittites, of the Amorites and Perizzites, of the Jebusites and Girgashites—to give it to his descendants. You have kept Your promise, because You are righteous.

⁴So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

⁵And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

³¹And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.

³²Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

⁹I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, ‘You are My servant.’ I have chosen and not rejected you.

²Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.

⁸And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”

⁷Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

¹⁵for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.

¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—

³Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

²But Abram replied, “O Lord God, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

³Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

¹³Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

⁴⁰Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.

⁴¹At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions went out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁷What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.

¹⁶In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

¹²“I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”

²⁷They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸He sent darkness, and it became dark—yet they defied His words.

¹The Lord answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

²You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land.

⁸He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, of both man and beast.

⁹He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.

¹⁴But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.

¹⁵You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.

¹²Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;

⁹God also said to Abraham, “You must keep My covenant—you and your descendants in the generations after you.

¹⁰This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.

²³The sons of Leah were Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁹Brothers, I can tell you with confidence that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

¹⁵Brothers, let me put this in human terms. Even a human covenant, once it is ratified, cannot be canceled or amended.

¹⁷What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.

²²But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)

²And the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

¹⁷He sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave.

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze.

⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” And they did so. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt!

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

¹⁸For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.

¹⁸And the Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁴Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—may He bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth.”

²⁴For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help.

⁶Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

⁵⁴the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. And although there was famine in every country, there was food throughout the land of Egypt.

⁵⁵When extreme hunger came to all the land of Egypt and the people cried out to Pharaoh for food, he told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”

⁵So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.

¹³There was no food, however, in all that region, because the famine was so severe; the lands of Egypt and Canaan had been exhausted by the famine.

¹⁴Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were buying, and he brought it into Pharaoh’s palace.

¹⁶He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.

¹¹And there I will provide for you, because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you and your household and everything you own will come to destitution.’

⁵And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.

⁶For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

¹When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?”

²“Look,” he added, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”

²So when Jacob’s sons had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”

¹Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me!” So none of them were with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

²But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household soon heard of it.

³¹Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and inform Pharaoh: ‘My brothers and my father’s household from the land of Canaan have come to me.

²⁶All those belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt—his direct descendants, besides the wives of Jacob’s sons—numbered sixty-six persons.

²⁷And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.

²²Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

⁵The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.

⁹Now return quickly to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.

¹⁰You shall settle in the land of Goshen and be near me—you and your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything you own.

⁵The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.

⁶The sons of Zerah: Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Dara—five in all.

²³Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.

³³When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.

⁶Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,

³“I am God,” He said, “the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

⁴I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will surely bring you back. And Joseph’s own hands will close your eyes.”

²²Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

⁴and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

¹⁵how our fathers went down to Egypt, where we lived many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers,

³²And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the plot of land that Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver. So it became an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants.

¹⁶Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.

¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear a solemn oath when he said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones with you from this place.”

²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

³And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly.

¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

⁹“I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”

¹⁰But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.

⁷but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

⁸Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

²⁴And the Lord made His people very fruitful, more numerous than their foes,

²⁵whose hearts He turned to hate His people, to conspire against His servants.

⁶God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

¹³Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

¹⁴But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.

¹⁷The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers. He made them into a great people during their stay in Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out of that land.

²⁰So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous.

⁸Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

²⁵whose hearts He turned to hate His people, to conspire against His servants.

⁹“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us.

¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

⁴His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, hurling them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth.

⁵And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

⁴saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

⁵For with one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against You—

¹A song of ascents. Many a time they have persecuted me from my youth—let Israel now declare—

²many a time they have persecuted me from my youth, but they have not prevailed against me.

²³By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were unafraid of the king’s edict.

²and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.

³But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

¹²So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.”

²⁴By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

²and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.

³But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

²⁶I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,

¹¹The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings”?

¹⁹“What things?” He asked. “The events involving Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet, powerful in speech and action before God and all the people.

²²So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

¹⁷To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. And Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.

¹⁸Now at the end of the time specified by the king, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.

⁴young men without blemish, handsome, gifted in all wisdom, knowledgeable, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace—and to teach them the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

²⁹And God gave Solomon wisdom, exceedingly deep insight, and understanding beyond measure, like the sand on the seashore.

³⁰Solomon’s wisdom was greater than that of all the men of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.

¹¹One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

¹²After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.

¹The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the Lord; He directs it where He pleases.

²⁴By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

²⁵He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin.

¹⁷For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by uniting to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

¹⁰Then Simon Peter drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.

¹¹“Put your sword back in its sheath!” Jesus said to Peter. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”

²⁸Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁵Simon Peter was still standing and warming himself. So they asked him, “Aren’t you also one of His disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”

²⁶One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?”

⁴⁵But they did not understand this statement. It was veiled from them so that they could not comprehend it, and they were afraid to ask Him about it.

¹As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

³⁴But the disciples did not understand any of these things. The meaning was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what He was saying.

²⁷When they arrived, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

¹Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

¹³The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”

¹⁴But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”

¹¹This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

¹²Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous.

¹A song of ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!

¹⁷This is My command to you: Love one another.

¹⁸If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.

⁸So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are kinsmen.

⁶Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!

⁷The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

¹⁴But Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed Me judge or executor between you?”

³⁵This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

⁷He who corrects a mocker brings shame on himself; he who rebukes a wicked man taints himself.

⁸Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

¹¹This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’

¹²Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

¹⁴Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s young men informed Nabal’s wife Abigail, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed at them.

¹⁵Yet these men were very good to us. When we were in the field, we were not harassed, and nothing of ours went missing the whole time we lived among them.

¹⁹Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.

²After Moses had sent back his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro had received her,

³along with her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

¹⁴But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.

¹⁹Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.”

²⁰So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

¹Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.

³⁵This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze.

⁹In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

⁶Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

³²‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

³So Moses thought, “I must go over and see this marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burning up?”

⁴When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.

⁶Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

³²‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

¹“At this my heart also pounds and leaps from its place.

²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown in terror.

⁷Only I, Daniel, saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but a great terror fell upon them, and they ran and hid themselves.

⁸So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision. No strength remained in me; my face grew deathly pale, and I was powerless.

⁵“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

¹⁵The Commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

¹Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

¹⁸And we ourselves heard this voice from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

⁷The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.

⁸I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

⁴⁴Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.

³¹and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

⁹You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt; You heard their cry at the Red Sea.

¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

³⁸For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.

²²The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

²³This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

¹⁴But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’

⁷but it is God who judges; He brings down one and exalts another.

⁷He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump

⁸to seat them with nobles, with the princes of His people.

¹⁶and when we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice, sent an angel, and brought us out of Egypt. Now look, we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory.

¹⁹And the angel of God, who had gone before the camp of Israel, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from before them and stood behind them,

⁴¹At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions went out of the land of Egypt.

²¹Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’

¹²He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.

³⁵The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

¹The Lord answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

²You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land.

¹⁵The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

¹⁶This is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!”

²²For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He tells you.

²³Everyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among his people.’

³⁷“Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”

³Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared before them, talking with Jesus.

⁴Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You wish, I will put up three shelters—one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

³⁸He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.

⁷Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”

²Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

¹²Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!

¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹¹If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

⁴the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob.

⁵³you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”

³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

⁴So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

⁵We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

¹⁶But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.

¹⁷They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

⁵¹You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

⁶On that day I swore to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands.

⁷And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’

³“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”

¹Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

²³They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’

¹⁹At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

²⁰They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

¹⁸Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,

²⁰Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.

¹⁸What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

¹⁹Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”

¹Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

²⁵Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

²⁶You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.

³⁹And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord God says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.

¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

¹¹But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.

¹²So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

²⁶if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.

²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.

²⁶You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.

²⁷Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Hosts.

⁴You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.

⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

⁸You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.

⁹You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

²“Tell the Israelites, ‘Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him.

³And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name.

¹⁶They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.

¹⁷They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

¹¹The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁴⁰See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

²¹This is the inventory for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, as recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

⁵The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

²and who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

³⁰So you are to set up the tabernacle according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

⁸And they are to make a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.

⁹You must make the tabernacle and design all its furnishings according to the pattern I show you.

²With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out.

¹⁸And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God!”

¹Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,

⁹The Lord has driven out great and powerful nations before you, and to this day no one can stand against you.

³¹So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image, and it was there the whole time the house of God was in Shiloh.

¹David constructed buildings for himself in the City of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.

²Then David said, “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the Lord has chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister before Him forever.”

¹A song of ascents. O Lord, remember on behalf of David all the hardships he endured,

²how he swore an oath to the Lord, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

²²After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’

¹After the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him,

²he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

¹¹And Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied, “but he is tending the sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel replied. “For we will not sit down to eat until he arrives.”

¹²So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.”

¹Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have selected from his sons a king for Myself.”

¹⁸Then King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?

¹⁹And as if this was a small thing in Your eyes, O Lord God, You have also spoken about the future of the house of Your servant. Is this Your custom with man, O Lord God?

²⁰Now the Lord has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built the house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹³He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

³⁷The foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, in the month of Ziv.

³⁸In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.

¹³Now King Solomon sent to bring Huram from Tyre.

¹⁴He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a craftsman in bronze. Huram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge for every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.

¹Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹Now when Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, he sent envoys to Solomon; for Hiram had always been a friend of David.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.

²⁵Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

¹This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?

²Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the Lord. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.

²⁷But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

⁵The house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.

⁶But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?

¹⁸But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

⁹Because you have made the Lord your dwelling—my refuge, the Most High—

¹This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?

⁴The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.

²¹“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

³⁴But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

³⁵or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

²¹To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

²⁴“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.

¹⁷“Oh, Lord God! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

²Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the Lord. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.

⁶By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.

⁷He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.

¹²It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I ordained all their host.

¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,

¹⁰for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹⁶Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”

³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

⁴¹and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

³For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

¹⁰“I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

³⁰“I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”

⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them.

⁴⁸So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.

²For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,

¹⁹Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.

³⁸He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.

¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

²He said: “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand.

¹³For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

³³When the Council members heard this, they were enraged, and they resolved to put the apostles to death.

¹⁶Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.

³⁰And throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

⁹His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are thrown out.

⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹⁹After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

⁶For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

³¹For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.

⁸Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

¹⁰but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

⁶⁴“You have said it yourself,” Jesus answered. “But I say to all of you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

⁶⁵At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “He has blasphemed! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.

¹¹He saw heaven open and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.

¹⁹Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.

¹⁶As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him.

¹¹Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war.

¹After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”

¹¹But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

⁴Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears,

²⁷This man was seized by the Jews, and they were about to kill him when I came with my troops to rescue him. For I had learned that he is a Roman citizen,

⁵⁴On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him.

¹³Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too shall cry out and receive no answer.

²⁷When the seven days were almost over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him,

²⁸crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”

²⁰And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

¹And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephen’s death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

¹⁴“Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him.

¹⁵And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin.

¹³where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

⁴I persecuted this Way even to the death, detaining both men and women and throwing them into prison,

¹³And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.

⁴⁶Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last.

⁵Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.

¹⁶And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’

³²And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has promised, among the remnant called by the Lord.

¹⁴And now he is here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name.”

²¹And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

³⁴Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up His garments by casting lots.

²⁰But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.

¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.