Acts 13:18

Read in context

Acts 13:16–20 · Berean Standard Bible

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.

20 All this took about 450 years. After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.

Greek words

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

Study Acts 13:18

Read the commentary on Acts 13

Cross-references

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

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 7:39

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.’

Exodus 16:2

And there in the desert they all grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

Exodus 16:35

The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

Numbers 14:22

not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—

Numbers 14:33

Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:34

In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

Deuteronomy 9:7

Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.

Deuteronomy 9:21

And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

Deuteronomy 9:22

You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

Deuteronomy 9:23

And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him.

Deuteronomy 9:24

You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.

Nehemiah 9:16

But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.

Nehemiah 9:17

They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

Nehemiah 9:18

Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,

Nehemiah 9:19

You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go.

Nehemiah 9:20

You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.

Nehemiah 9:21

For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Psalms 78:17

But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

Psalms 78:18

They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.

Psalms 78:19

They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

Psalms 78:20

When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”

Psalms 78:21

Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,

Psalms 78:22

because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation.

Psalms 78:23

Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.

Psalms 78:24

He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.

Psalms 78:25

Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.

Psalms 78:26

He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.

Psalms 78:27

He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

Psalms 78:28

He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

Psalms 78:29

So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them what they craved.

Psalms 78:30

Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths,

Psalms 78:31

God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel.

Psalms 78:32

In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

Psalms 78:33

So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.

Psalms 78:34

When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.

Psalms 78:35

And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

Psalms 78:36

But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues.

Psalms 78:37

Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

Psalms 78:38

And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

Psalms 78:39

He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

Psalms 78:40

How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

Psalms 78:41

Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

Psalms 78:42

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

Psalms 95:8

do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Psalms 95:9

where your fathers tested and tried Me, though they had seen My work.

Psalms 95:10

For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.”

Psalms 95:11

So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”

Psalms 106:13

Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.

Psalms 106:14

They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

Psalms 106:15

So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

Psalms 106:16

In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

Psalms 106:17

The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.

Psalms 106:18

Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.

Psalms 106:19

At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

Psalms 106:20

They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

Psalms 106:21

They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

Psalms 106:22

wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

Psalms 106:23

So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

Psalms 106:24

They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.

Psalms 106:25

They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.

Psalms 106:26

So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,

Psalms 106:27

to disperse their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

Psalms 106:28

They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

Psalms 106:29

So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

Ezekiel 20:10

So I brought them out of the land of Egypt and led them into the wilderness.

Ezekiel 20:11

And I gave them My statutes and made known to them My ordinances—for the man who does these things will live by them.

Ezekiel 20:12

I also gave them My Sabbaths as a sign between us, so that they would know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

Ezekiel 20:13

Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

Ezekiel 20:14

But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

Ezekiel 20:15

Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—

Ezekiel 20:16

because they kept rejecting My ordinances, refusing to walk in My statutes, and profaning My Sabbaths; for their hearts continually went after their idols.

Ezekiel 20:17

Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or bring them to an end in the wilderness.

Amos 5:25

Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

Amos 5:26

You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.

1 Corinthians 10:1

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea.

1 Corinthians 10:2

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

1 Corinthians 10:3

They all ate the same spiritual food

1 Corinthians 10:4

and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:5

Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

1 Corinthians 10:6

These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

1 Corinthians 10:7

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.”

1 Corinthians 10:8

We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

1 Corinthians 10:9

We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.

1 Corinthians 10:10

And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

Hebrews 3:7

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice,

Hebrews 3:8

do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,

Hebrews 3:9

where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.

Hebrews 3:10

Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’

Hebrews 3:16

For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

Hebrews 3:17

And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Hebrews 3:18

And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed?

Hebrews 3:19

So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.