Bible Strands
Acts 7:6
God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Stephen recounts a divine declaration made to Abraham concerning his future offspring. This statement occurs within Stephen’s judicial defense, positioned between the promise of land inheritance and the guarantee of national deliverance.
The words — ἐλάλησεν (elalēsen) translates literally as “spoke,” and ἔσται (estai) translates as “will be.” These verbs frame the passage as a direct prophetic utterance about future historical conditions.
The thread — The prediction first appears in Genesis 15:13 and corresponds to the duration recorded in Exodus 12:40. Paul later cites this same chronological marker in Galatians 3:17 to establish the sequence of covenant promise and Mosaic law.
Why it lands — The text states a factual timeline of foreign bondage preceding divine intervention. It requires the reader to accept that covenant fulfillment operates through extended historical processes rather than immediate outcomes.
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
King James Version
And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
Cross-references
- Genesis 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- Exodus 12:40 Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.
- Galatians 3:17 What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.
- Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”