Acts 7:39

But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Stephen addresses his Jewish hearers during his defense, recounting the wilderness generation’s rebellion against the deliverer who stood with the assembly at Sinai. He notes that the Israelites rejected the one who received living words to pass on to them.

The words — The Greek phrase οὐκ ἠθέλησαν ὑπηκοοι γενέσθαι (ouk ēthelēsan hupēkooi genesthai) literally renders “they did not want to be obedient.” It directly qualifies the refusal of ἡμῶν οἱ πατέρες (hēmōn hoi pateres), “our fathers,” to submit to the one addressed by ᾧ (hō), “to whom.”

The thread — This pattern of ancestral rebellion echoes Numbers 14:3, where the people question God’s purpose in bringing them to fall by the sword, and Numbers 11:5, which recalls their longing for Egypt’s provisions. Nehemiah 9:16 further documents the same cycle of stiff-necked arrogance and disobedience.

Why it lands — The text records that the Israelites actively refused obedience and mentally reverted to their former bondage. A reader must recognize that rejecting divine deliverance produces a voluntary return to the very oppression that deliverance was meant to end.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

ᾧhōto whom οὐκouknot ἠθέλησανēthelēsanwanted ὑπήκοοιhupēkooiobedient γενέσθαιgenesthaito be οἱhoithe πατέρεςpateresfathers ἡμῶν,hēmōnof us,ἀλλ᾽all᾽but ἀπώσαντοapōsantothey thrust away καὶkaiand ἐστράφησανestraphēsanthey turned back ἐνenin ταῖςtaisthe καρδίαιςkardiaishearts αὐτῶνautōnof them εἰςeisto Αἴγυπτον,AiguptonEgypt,

King James Version

To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

Cross-references

Numbers 14:3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
Numbers 11:5 We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
Nehemiah 9:16 But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.
Exodus 16:3 “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”
Ezekiel 20:6 On that day I swore to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands.
Acts 7:51 You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.
Exodus 14:11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
Exodus 17:3 But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
Numbers 21:5 and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”
Judges 11:2 And Gilead’s wife bore him sons who grew up, drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.”