Acts 7:17-45

17But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18Till another king arose, who knew not Joseph. 19The same dealt treacherously with our kindred, and oppressed our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. 20In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished in his father’s house three months:1 21And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. 22And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. 23And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. 24And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: 25For he supposed his brethren to understand that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.2 26And the next day he showed himself to them as they were fighting, and would have constrained them to be at peace again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? 27But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? 29Then Moses fled at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

30And when forty years had passed, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and dared not behold. 33Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. 34I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. 35This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He brought them out, after he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you of your brethren, like me; him shall ye hear.3 38This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the living oracles to give to us: 39Whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, 40Saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. 41And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

42Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness? 43Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Molech, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. 44Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking to Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.4 45Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David;5