Acts 7:42
What does Acts 7:42 mean?
A plain-English look at Acts 7:42 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Acts 7:42 means
God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as written in the book of the prophets. Stephen cites Scripture to show that persistent idolatry leads to divine abandonment—God handing people over to their chosen delusions. The question raised in the prophetic citation exposes the emptiness of their sacrifices in the wilderness when hearts were not right. Worship of sun, moon, and stars widens the idolatry beyond the calf to the celestial realm. Stephen’s point is that mere ritual cannot substitute for true obedience. When people persistently reject God’s truth, judgment comes, not only in acts but in God allowing them their false worship to its bitter end.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did ye offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
KJV
King James Version · 1611Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did ye offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949But God was turned from them and let them give worship to the stars of heaven, as it says in the book of the prophets, Did you make offerings to me of sheep and oxen for forty years in the waste land, O house of Israel?
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862and God did turn, and did give them up to do service to the host of the heaven, according as it hath been written in the scroll of the prophets: Slain beasts and sacrifices did ye offer to Me forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752And God turned and gave them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the books of the prophets: Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me for forty years, in the desert, O house of Israel?
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890ButGod turned and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in [the] book of the prophets, Have ye offered me victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
Context
Following the golden calf, Stephen moves to God’s judicial response, quoting the prophets. Verse 43 will continue the citation, naming Moloch and Rephan and predicting exile beyond Babylon. This shift from past idolatry to judgment underscores Stephen’s thesis: Israel’s history includes not just moments of sin but God’s solemn verdicts against it. These verses build pressure toward Stephen’s later claim that the Temple cannot contain God and that resisting the Holy Spirit has been a recurrent problem.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- 2 Kings 17:16
And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
- Deuteronomy 4:19
and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Jehovah thy God hath allotted unto all the peoples under the whole heaven.
- Isaiah 66:4
I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not.
- Job 31:26
If I have beheld the sun when it shined, Or the moon walking in brightness,
- Hosea 4:17
Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
- Jeremiah 19:13
and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.
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