1Then the high priest said, If these things are so.2He said, Men, brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.3He said to him, "Go out from your land and from your kindred and come to the land that I will show you."4Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God removed him into this land where you now live.5He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a footstep, and promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.6God spoke in this way: his offspring would be foreigners in a land belonging to others, and they would enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years.7I will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved, said God. After these things they will come out and serve me in this place.8He gave him the covenant of circumcision. In this way he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.9The patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, yet God was with him.10God rescued him from all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt. He appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.11A famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, along with great distress, and our fathers could not find food.12When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there first.13On the second visit Joseph was recognized by his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh.14Joseph sent for Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five persons in all.15Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died.16They were brought to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.17As the time approached for the promise God had made to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt.18A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.19He dealt craftily with our people and mistreated our fathers by forcing them to expose their infants so they would not survive.20At that time Moses was born. He was pleasing to God and was brought up for three months in his father's house.21When he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter rescued him and raised him as her own son.22Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became powerful in speech and action.23When he was forty years old, the desire came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.24Seeing one being mistreated, he defended him and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian.25He thought his brothers would understand that God was granting them deliverance through his hand, but they did not understand.26The next day he appeared while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying, Men, you are brothers. Why are you wronging one another?27The man who was wronging his neighbor pushed him away and said, Who made you ruler and judge over us?28Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?29At this word Moses fled and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.30After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning thorn bush.31Moses was amazed at the sight. As he approached to examine it, the voice of the Lord came.32I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses trembled and did not dare to look.33The Lord said to him, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.34I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groaning. I have come down to rescue them. Now come; I will send you to Egypt.35This same Moses whom they rejected when they said, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' God sent as ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.36He led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.37This is the Moses who told the sons of Israel, God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, just as he raised me up.38This is the one who was with the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.39Our fathers refused to obey him. Instead they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.40They said to Aaron, Make gods for us who will go before us, because this Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.41In those days they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and celebrated what their hands had made.42God turned away and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?43You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.44The tent of testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, as the one speaking to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.45Our fathers received it in turn and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the nations that God drove out before them until the days of David.46David found favor before God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.47Solomon built a house for him.48Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says.49Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what place will serve as my resting place?50Did not my hand make all these things?51You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, always resist the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did.52Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.53You received the law as decrees given by angels, yet you did not keep it.