1. The high priest said to Stephen, “Are these things true?”
2. Stephen answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to Abraham, our ancestor. Abraham was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran.
3. God said to Abraham, ‘Leave your country and your relatives. Go to the land I will show you.’
4. So Abraham left the country of Chaldea and went to live in Haran. After Abraham’s father died, God sent him to this place where you now live.
5. God did not give Abraham any of this land, not even a foot of it. But God promised that he would give him and his descendants this land. (This was before Abraham had any descendants.)
6. This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves. And they will do cruel things to them for 400 years.