The Hyperlinked Bible
Intertextuality Pair
Quotation
Later text
Acts 7:42-43BSB
But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Earlier text
And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Earlier text
When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
Earlier text
The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
Earlier text
those who bow on the rooftops to worship the host of heaven, those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Milcom,
Because Israel turned to idols, "God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven" (Acts 7:42), and Stephen cites the prophets' verdict ending, "'Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon'" (7:43). He reads Israel's history as the covenant curse working itself out: persistent idolatry meets the sword and exile the law itself had warned (Leviticus 26:25). This is the judicial handing-over — God gives rebels up to the very idols they choose (cf. Romans 1:24-28). Yet even the sentence of exile is not God's last word; the prophets who pronounced it also promised return, and the true end of exile comes in Christ, who bears the covenant curse himself (Galatians 3:13) to bring home a people from beyond every Babylon.