Acts 13:17

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Acts 13:15–19 · Berean Standard Bible

15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders sent word to them: “Brothers, if you have a word of encouragement for the people, please speak.”

16 Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak: “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who fear God, listen to me!

17 The 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.

18 He endured their conduct for about forty years in the wilderness.

19 And having vanquished seven nations in Canaan, He gave their land to His people as an inheritance.

Greek words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Acts 7:2

And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

Acts 7:3

and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’

Acts 7:4

So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living.

Acts 7:5

He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.

Acts 7:6

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

Acts 7:7

‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’

Acts 7:8

Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Acts 7:9

Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

Acts 7:10

and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.

Acts 7:11

Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.

Acts 7:12

When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.

Acts 7:13

On their second visit, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh.

Acts 7:14

Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.

Acts 7:15

So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.

Acts 7:16

Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.

Acts 7:17

As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number.

Acts 7:18

Then another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt.

Acts 7:19

He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.

Acts 7:20

At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house.

Acts 7:21

When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.

Acts 7:22

So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

Acts 7:23

When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

Acts 7:24

And when he saw one of them being mistreated, Moses went to his defense and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian who was oppressing him.

Acts 7:25

He assumed his brothers would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not.

Acts 7:26

The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’

Acts 7:27

But the man who was abusing his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?

Acts 7:28

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

Acts 7:29

At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons.

Acts 7:30

After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

Acts 7:31

When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him:

Acts 7:32

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

Acts 7:33

Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

Acts 7:34

I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

Acts 7:35

This 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.

Acts 7:36

He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.

Acts 7:37

This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’

Acts 7:38

He 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.

Acts 7:39

But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

Acts 7:40

They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

Acts 7:41

At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.

Acts 7:42

But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of 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?

Acts 7:43

You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

Acts 7:44

Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.

Acts 7:45

And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David,

Acts 7:46

who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

Acts 7:47

But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.

Acts 7:48

However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

Acts 7:49

‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or where will My place of repose be?

Acts 7:50

Has not My hand made all these things?’

Acts 7:51

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

Acts 7:52

Which 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—

Acts 7:53

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

Genesis 12:1

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

Genesis 12:2

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Genesis 12:3

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 17:7

I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Genesis 17:8

And 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.”

Deuteronomy 4:37

Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,

Deuteronomy 7:6

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 7:7

The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

Deuteronomy 7:8

But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 9:5

It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Deuteronomy 14:2

for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Nehemiah 9:7

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

Nehemiah 9:8

You 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.

Psalms 105:6

O offspring of His servant Abraham, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.

Psalms 105:7

He is the LORD our God; His judgments carry throughout the earth.

Psalms 105:8

He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations—

Psalms 105:9

the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac.

Psalms 105:10

He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant:

Psalms 105:11

“I will give you the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.”

Psalms 105:12

When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land,

Psalms 105:42

For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant.

Psalms 105:43

He brought forth His people with rejoicing, His chosen with shouts of joy.

Psalms 135:4

For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.

Isaiah 41:8

“But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend—

Isaiah 41:9

I 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.

Isaiah 44:1

But now listen, O Jacob My servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.

Jeremiah 33:24

“Have you not noticed what these people are saying: ‘The LORD has rejected the two families He had chosen’? So they despise My people and no longer regard them as a nation.

Jeremiah 33:25

This is what the LORD says: If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night and the fixed order of heaven and earth,

Jeremiah 33:26

then I would also reject the descendants of Jacob and of My servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from captivity and will have compassion on them.”

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Exodus 1:7

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

Exodus 1:8

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

Exodus 1:9

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

Deuteronomy 10:22

Your 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.

Psalms 105:23

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

Psalms 105:24

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

Exodus 6:1

But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for because of My mighty hand he will let the people go; because of My strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

Exodus 6:2

God also told Moses, “I am the LORD.

Exodus 6:3

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name the LORD I did not make Myself known to them.

Exodus 6:4

I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they lived as foreigners.

Exodus 6:5

Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered My covenant.

Exodus 6:6

Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

Exodus 6:7

I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

Exodus 6:8

And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD!’”

Exodus 6:9

Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.

Exodus 6:10

So the LORD said to Moses,

Exodus 6:11

“Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his land.”

Exodus 6:12

But in the LORD’s presence Moses replied, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am unskilled in speech?”

Exodus 6:13

Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge concerning both the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 6:14

These were the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans of Reuben.

Exodus 15:1

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.

Exodus 15:2

The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

Exodus 15:3

The LORD is a warrior, the LORD is His name.

Exodus 15:4

Pharaoh’s chariots and army He has cast into the sea; the finest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.

Exodus 15:5

The depths have covered them; they sank there like a stone.

Exodus 15:6

Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.

Exodus 15:7

You overthrew Your adversaries by Your great majesty. You unleashed Your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble.

Exodus 15:8

At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.

Exodus 15:9

The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

Exodus 15:10

But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Exodus 15:11

Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

Exodus 15:12

You stretched out Your right hand, and the earth swallowed them up.

Exodus 15:13

With loving devotion You will lead the people You have redeemed; with Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling.

Exodus 15:14

The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.

Exodus 15:15

Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; trembling will seize the leaders of Moab; those who dwell in Canaan will melt away,

Exodus 15:16

and terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of Your arm they will be as still as a stone until Your people pass by, O LORD, until the people You have bought pass by.

Exodus 15:17

You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance— the place, O LORD, You have prepared for Your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, Your hands have established.

Exodus 15:18

The LORD will reign forever and ever!”

Exodus 15:19

For when Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them. But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.

Exodus 15:20

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.

Exodus 15:21

And Miriam sang back to them: “Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; the horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.”

Exodus 18:11

Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for He did this when they treated Israel with arrogance.”

Deuteronomy 4:20

Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.

Deuteronomy 4:34

Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

Deuteronomy 7:19

the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.

1 Samuel 4:8

Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

Nehemiah 9:9

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

Nehemiah 9:10

You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the people of his land, for You knew they had acted with arrogance against our fathers. You made a name for Yourself that endures to this day.

Nehemiah 9:11

You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging waters.

Nehemiah 9:12

You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should travel.

Psalms 77:13

Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?

Psalms 77:14

You are the God who works wonders; You display Your strength among the peoples.

Psalms 77:15

With power You redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

Psalms 77:16

The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled; even the depths were shaken.

Psalms 77:17

The clouds poured down water; the skies resounded with thunder; Your arrows flashed back and forth.

Psalms 77:18

Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.

Psalms 77:19

Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.

Psalms 77:20

You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalms 78:12

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

Psalms 78:13

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

Psalms 78:42

They did not remember His power — the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

Psalms 78:43

when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

Psalms 78:44

He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

Psalms 78:45

He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

Psalms 78:46

He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.

Psalms 78:47

He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

Psalms 78:48

He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

Psalms 78:49

He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity— a band of destroying angels.

Psalms 78:50

He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

Psalms 78:51

He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.

Psalms 78:52

He led out His people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

Psalms 78:53

He led them safely, so they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies.

Psalms 105:26

He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen.

Psalms 105:27

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

Psalms 105:28

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

Psalms 105:29

He turned their waters to blood and caused their fish to die.

Psalms 105:30

Their land teemed with frogs, even in their royal chambers.

Psalms 105:31

He spoke, and insects swarmed— gnats throughout their country.

Psalms 105:32

He gave them hail for rain, with lightning throughout their land.

Psalms 105:33

He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country.

Psalms 105:34

He spoke, and the locusts came— young locusts without number.

Psalms 105:35

They devoured every plant in their land and consumed the produce of their soil.

Psalms 105:36

Then He struck all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigor.

Psalms 105:37

He brought Israel out with silver and gold, and none among His tribes stumbled.

Psalms 105:38

Egypt was glad when they departed, for the dread of Israel had fallen on them.

Psalms 105:39

He spread a cloud as a covering and a fire to light up the night.

Psalms 106:7

Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.

Psalms 106:8

Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.

Psalms 106:9

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

Psalms 106:10

He saved them from the hand that hated them; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

Psalms 106:11

The waters covered their foes; not one of them remained.

Psalms 114:1

When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

Psalms 114:2

Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.

Psalms 114:3

The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;

Psalms 114:4

the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.

Psalms 114:5

Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,

Psalms 114:6

O mountains, that you skipped like rams, O hills, like lambs?

Psalms 114:7

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

Psalms 114:8

who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a fountain of water!

Psalms 135:8

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

Psalms 135:9

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

Psalms 135:10

He struck down many nations and slaughtered mighty kings:

Psalms 136:10

He struck down the firstborn of Egypt His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalms 136:11

and brought Israel out from among them His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalms 136:12

with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalms 136:13

He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalms 136:14

and led Israel through the midst, His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalms 136:15

but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. His loving devotion endures forever.

Isaiah 63:9

In 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.

Isaiah 63:10

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

Isaiah 63:11

Then His people remembered the days of old, the days of Moses. Where is He who brought them through the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is the One who set His Holy Spirit among them,

Isaiah 63:12

who sent His glorious arm to lead them by the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to gain for Himself everlasting renown,

Isaiah 63:13

who led them through the depths like a horse in the wilderness, so that they did not stumble?

Isaiah 63:14

Like cattle going down to the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. You led Your people this way to make for Yourself a glorious name.

Jeremiah 32:20

You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and You do so to this very day, both in Israel and among all mankind. And You have made a name for Yourself, as is the case to this day.

Jeremiah 32:21

You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror.

Amos 2:10

And I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, that you might take possession of the land of the Amorite.

Micah 6:4

For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery. I sent Moses before you, as well as Aaron and Miriam.

Micah 7:15

As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show My wonders.

Micah 7:16

Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.