And the high priest said, Are these things so?
And he said,
Brethren and fathers, hearken: The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
and said unto him, Get thee out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldæans, and dwelt in Haran: and from thence, when his father was dead, God removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell:
and he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: and he promised that he would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
And God spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them ill, four hundred years.
And the nation to which they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.
And the patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt: and God was with him,
and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Now there came a famine over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the first time.
And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's race became manifest unto Pharaoh.
And Joseph sent, and called to him Jacob his father, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
And Jacob went down into Egypt; and he died, himself and our fathers;
and they were carried over unto Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver of the sons of {Greek: Emmor.}Hamor in Shechem.
But as the time of the promise drew nigh which God vouchsafed unto Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
till there arose another king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.
The same dealt craftily with our race, and ill-treated our fathers, that {Or, he}they should cast out their babes to the end they might not {Greek: be preserved alive.}live.
At which season Moses was born, and was {Or, fair unto God Compare 2 Corinthians 10:4.}exceeding fair; and he was nourished three months in his father's house.
and when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works.
But when he was well-nigh forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian:
and he supposed that his brethren understood that God by his hand was giving them {Or, salvation}deliverance; but they understood not.
And the day following he appeared unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
Wouldest thou kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?
And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.
And when forty years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
And when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold, there came a voice of the Lord,
I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. And Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
And the Lord said unto him, Loose the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I am come down to deliver them: and now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? him hath God sent to be both a ruler and a {Greek: redeemer.}deliverer with the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush.
This man led them forth, having wrought wonders and signs in Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
This is that Moses, who said unto the children of Israel, {Deuteronomy 18:15}A prophet shall God raise up unto you from among your brethren, {Or, as he raised up me}like unto me.
This is he that was in the {Or, congregation}church in the wilderness with the angel that spake to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received living oracles to give unto us:
to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and turned back in their hearts unto Egypt,
saying unto Aaron, Make us gods that shall go before us: for as for this Moses, who led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets,
{Amos 5:25 ff.}Did ye offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices
Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
And the star of the god Rephan,
The figures which ye made to worship them:
And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he appointed who spake unto Moses, that he should make it according to the figure that he had seen.
Which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with {Greek: Jesus. Compare Hebrews 4:8.}Joshua when they entered on the possession of the {Or, Gentiles Compare chapter 4:25}nations, that God thrust out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.
But Solomon built him a house.
Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in houses made with hands; as saith the prophet,
{Isaiah 66:1 f.}The heaven is my throne,
And the earth the footstool of my feet:
What manner of house will ye build me? saith the Lord:
Or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers;
ye who received the law {Or, as the ordinance of angels Greek: unto ordinances of angels.}as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.
Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord;
and they cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Querverweise zu Apostelgeschichte 7,16 Apg 7,16
And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.
And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let that which thou hast be thine.
And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found favor in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand; {Or, for therefore have I seen}forasmuch as I have seen thy face, as one seeth the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.
Take, I pray thee, my {Hebrew: blessing.}gift that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have {Hebrew: all.}enough. And he urged him, and he took it.
And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.
And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young: and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.
Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.
And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find favor in the sight of my lord.
So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.
And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called {That is, Booths.}Succoth.
And Jacob came {Or, to Shalem, a city}in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram; and encamped before the city.
And he bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred {Hebrew: kesitah.}pieces of money.
And he erected there an altar, and called it {That is, God, the God of Israel.}El-Elohe-Israel.
And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her; and he took her, and lay with her, and humbled her.
And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake {Hebrew: to the heart of the damsel.}kindly unto the damsel.
And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife.
Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they came.
And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him.
And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.
And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you, give her unto him to wife.
And make ye marriages with us; give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you.
And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.
And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find favor in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give.
Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.
And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with guile, and spake, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,
and said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us.
Only on this condition will we consent unto you: if ye will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised;
then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.
And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son.
And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter: and he was honored above all the house of his father.
And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying,
These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for, behold, the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.
Only on this condition will the men consent unto us to dwell with us, to become one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised.
Shall not their cattle and their substance and all their beasts be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us.
And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.
And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city {Or, boldly}unawares, and slew all the males.
And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went forth.
The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.
They took their flocks and their herds and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field;
and all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives, took they captive and made a prey, even all that was in the house.
And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?
And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem).
And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah—
the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.