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¹ The Kohen Gadol said, "Are these things so?" ² He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Avraham, when he was in Aram-Naharayim, before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, 'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.' ⁴ Then he came out of the land of the Kasdim, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child. ⁶ God spoke in this way: that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ 'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.' ⁸ He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Avraham became the father of Yitzchak, and circumcised him the eighth day. Yitzchak became the father of Ya`akov, and Ya`akov became the father of the twelve patriarchs. ⁹ "The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Yosef, sold him into Mitzrayim. God was with him, ¹⁰ and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Par`oh, king of Mitzrayim. He made him governor over Mitzrayim and all his house. <sup>11</sup> Now a famine came over all the land of Mitzrayim and Kana`an, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food. ¹² But when Ya`akov heard that there was grain in Mitzrayim, he sent forth our fathers the first time. <sup>13</sup> On the second time Yosef was made known to his brothers, and Yosef's race was revealed to Par`oh. ¹⁴ Yosef sent, and summoned Ya`akov, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls. <sup>15</sup> Ya`akov went down into Mitzrayim, and he died, himself and our fathers, ¹⁶ and they were brought back to Shekhem, and laid in the tomb that Avraham bought for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor of Shekhem.

¹⁷ "But as the time of the promise came close which God swore to Avraham, the people grew and multiplied in Mitzrayim, ¹⁸ until there arose a different king, who didn't know Yosef. ¹⁹ The same dealt slyly with our race, and mistreated our fathers, that they should throw out their babies, so that they wouldn't stay alive. ²⁰ At that time Moshe was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father's house. ²¹ When he was thrown out, Par`oh's daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son. ²² Moshe was instructed in all the wisdom of the Mitzrim. He was mighty in his words and works. ²³ But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Yisra'el. ²⁴ Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Mitzrian. ²⁵ He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn't understand. ²⁶ "The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at shalom again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one to another?' ²⁷ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Mitzrian yesterday?' ²⁹ Moshe fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midyan, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰ "When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. ³¹ When Moshe saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him, ³² 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzchak, and the God of Ya`akov.' Moshe trembled, and dared not look. ³³ The Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Mitzrayim, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Mitzrayim.' ³⁵ "This Moshe, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' -- God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ This man led them forth, having worked wonders and signs in Mitzrayim, in the Sea of Suf, and in the wilderness forty years. ³⁷ This is that Moshe, who said to the children of Yisra'el, 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet to you from among your brothers, like me.' ³⁸ This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us, ³⁹ to whom our fathers wouldn't be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Mitzrayim, ⁴⁰ saying to Aharon, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moshe, who led us forth out of the land of Mitzrayim, we don't know what has become of him.' ⁴¹ They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

⁴² But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Yisra'el? ⁴³ You took up the tent of Molekh, The star of your god Reifan, The figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Bavel.' ⁴⁴ "Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moshe appointed, that he should make it according to the pattern that he had seen; ⁴⁵ which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Yehoshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David, ⁴⁶ who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Ya`akov. <sup>47</sup> But Shlomo built him a house. <sup>48</sup> However, Ha`Elyon doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, ⁴⁹ 'heaven is my throne, And the eretz the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build me?' says the Lord; 'Or what is the place of my rest? ⁵⁰ Didn't my hand make all these things?'

⁵¹ "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Ruach HaKodesh! As your fathers did, so you do. ⁵² Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. ⁵³ You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn't keep it!"

⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. ⁵⁵ But he, being full of the Ruach HaKodesh, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Yeshua standing on the right hand of God, ⁵⁶ and said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!" ⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord. ⁵⁸ They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Sha'ul. ⁵⁹ They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, "Lord Yeshua, receive my Spirit!" ⁶⁰ He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them!" When he had said this, he fell asleep.