Acts 7 - Simple English

1Then the high priest said, "Are these things true?"

2And Stephen said, "Men, brothers, and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Charran,"

3"and said to him, 'Leave your country and your family, and come into the land that I will show you.'"

4"Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Charran. From there, after his father died, God moved him into this land, where you now live."

5"God gave him no part of it as an inheritance, not even enough to set his foot on. Yet he promised that he would give it to him to possess, and to his descendants after him, even though Abraham had no child yet."

6"And God spoke in this way: that his descendants would live as strangers in a foreign land, and that people would make them slaves and treat them badly for four hundred years."

7"'And I will judge the nation that makes them slaves,' God said, 'and after that they will come out and serve me in this place.'"

8"And God gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs."

9"The patriarchs were filled with envy, and sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him,"

10"and rescued him out of all his troubles. God gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Pharaoh made him governor over Egypt and over all his house."

11"Then a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great trouble with it, and our fathers could find no food."

12"But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time."

13"And the second time Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh."

14"Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and called him to come, and all his family too, seventy-five people in all."

15"So Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died there, and our fathers died too."

16"They were carried over to Sychem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem."

17"But when the time drew near for the promise that God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and became many in Egypt,"

18"until another king arose who did not know Joseph."

19"He dealt craftily with our people, and treated our fathers badly, so that they had to throw out their babies and leave them to die."

20"At that time Moses was born, and he was very beautiful. For three months he was cared for in his father's house."

21"And when he was thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and brought him up as her own son."

22"And Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in words and in deeds."

23"When he was a full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel."

24"And when he saw one of them being wronged, he defended him. He paid back the one who had oppressed him, and struck the Egyptian dead."

25"He thought his brothers would understand that God was going to save them by his hand, but they did not understand."

26"The next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. He said, 'Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?'"

27"But the man who was wronging his neighbour pushed him away and said, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?"

28"'Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'"

29"At these words Moses ran away, and he lived as a stranger in the land of Madian, where he became the father of two sons."

30"And when forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina, in a flame of fire in a bush."

31"When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. And as he came near to look at it, the voice of the Lord came to him,"

32"saying, 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Then Moses shook with fear and did not dare to look."

33"Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

34"'I have seen, I have seen how my people in Egypt are suffering, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to save them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.'"

35"This Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' - this same Moses God sent to be a ruler and a rescuer, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush."

36"He brought them out, after he had done wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness for forty years."

37"This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me. You must listen to him.'"

38"This is the man who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on mount Sina, and with our fathers. He received the living words of God to give to us."

39"But our fathers would not obey him. They pushed him away from them, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt."

40"They said to Aaron, 'Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'"

41"And in those days they made a calf, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and were glad about the things their own hands had made."

42"Then God turned away, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'House of Israel, did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness?"

43"'No, you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, images that you made to worship. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'"

44"Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as God had commanded when he spoke to Moses and told him to make it after the pattern he had seen."

45"Our fathers who came after them brought that tent with Jesus into the land of the Gentiles, when God drove them out before our fathers. It was there until the days of David."

46"David found favour with God, and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob."

47"But it was Solomon who built him a house."

48"Yet the Most High does not live in temples made by hands. As the prophet says,"

49"'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or what is the place where I may rest?"

50"'Has not my hand made all these things?'"

51"You stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always fight against the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you."

52"Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who told beforehand of the coming of the Just One. And you have now betrayed him and murdered him,"

53"you who received the law given through angels, and have not kept it."

54When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they ground their teeth at him.

55But he was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up steadily into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

56He said, "Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God."

57Then they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and rushed at him all together.

58They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses laid their coats down at the feet of a young man whose name was Saul.

59And they stoned Stephen, while he called on God and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

60Then he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.