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Psalm 113

1  Alleluia.
      Give praise, you servants of the Lord, ♦︎
   O praise the name of the Lord.
2  Blessed be the name of the Lord, ♦︎
   from this time forth and for evermore.
3  From the rising of the sun to its setting ♦︎
   let the name of the Lord be praised.
4  The Lord is high above all nations ♦︎
   and his glory above the heavens.
5  Who is like the Lord our God,
      that has his throne so high, ♦︎
   yet humbles himself to behold
      the things of heaven and earth?
6  He raises the poor from the dust ♦︎
   and lifts the needy from the ashes,
7  To set them with princes, ♦︎
   with the princes of his people.
8  He gives the barren woman a place in the house ♦︎
   and makes her a joyful mother of children.
      Alleluia.

Psalm 114

1  When Israel came out of Egypt, ♦︎
   the house of Jacob from a people of a strange tongue,
2  Judah became his sanctuary, ♦︎
   Israel his dominion.
3  The sea saw that, and fled; ♦︎
   Jordan was driven back.
4  The mountains skipped like rams, ♦︎
   the little hills like young sheep.
5  What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? ♦︎
   O Jordan, that you were driven back?
6  You mountains, that you skipped like rams, ♦︎
   you little hills like young sheep?
7  Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, ♦︎
   at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8  Who turns the hard rock into a pool of water, ♦︎
   the flint-stone into a springing well.

Stephen’s Speech to the Council

7Then the high priest asked him, ‘Are these things so?’ ²And Stephen replied:

‘Brothers^* and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, ³and said to him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.” ⁴Then he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this country in which you are now living. ⁵He did not give him any of it as a heritage, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as his possession and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child. ⁶And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and maltreat them for four hundred years. ⁷“But I will judge the nation that they serve,” said God, “and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.” ⁸Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so 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.

9 ‘The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him, ¹⁰and rescued him from all his afflictions, and enabled him to win favour and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. ¹¹Now there came a famine throughout Egypt and Canaan, and great suffering, and our ancestors could find no food. ¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on their first visit. ¹³On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five in all; ¹⁵so Jacob went down to Egypt. He himself died there as well as our ancestors, ¹⁶and their bodies^* were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.