2 Stephen answered, “My Jewish fathers and brothers, listen to me. Our great and glorious God appeared to Abraham, our ancestor, when he was in Mesopotamia. This was before he lived in Haran.
3 God said to him, ‘Leave your country and your people, and go to the country I will show you.’
4 “So Abraham left the country of Chaldea. He went to live in Haran. After his father died, God sent him to this place, where you live now.
5 But God did not give Abraham any of this land, not even a foot of it. But God promised that in the future he would give Abraham this land for himself and for his children. This was before Abraham had any children.
6 “This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will live in another country. They will be strangers. The people there will make them slaves and mistreat them for 400 years.
7 But I will punish the nation that made them slaves.’ And God also said, ‘After those things happen, your people will come out of that country. Then they will worship me here in this place.’
8 “God made an agreement with Abraham; the sign for this agreement was circumcision. And so when Abraham had a son, he circumcised him when he was eight days old. His son’s name was Isaac. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob. And Jacob did the same for his sons, who became the twelve great ancestors of our people.