Acts 7:42

Then God turned Read, But. Cp. Joshua 24:20, "If ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then he will turnand do you hurt."

and gave them up to worship[serve] the host of heaven God had previously warned them against this kind of idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:19), but we learn from the records of their historians (2 Kings 17:16) and their prophets (Jeremiah 19:13; Zephaniah 1:5) that the warning was given in vain.

as it is written in the book of the prophets The Hebrews divided their Scriptures into three sections, the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (called the Psalms, Luke 24:44), and each of these parts is looked upon as a special and separate book. The Law comprised the five books of Moses. The earlier prophets were the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings: the later prophets were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve which we now call Minor Prophets. The Hagiographa consisted of the following books in the order here given: Psalms (and the expression of Luke 24:44 will be understood because the Psalms stand first in this section), Proverbs, Job, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther (these five last mentioned were called the five rolls, being written on separate rolls for use at special festival and fast services), Daniel, Ezra (Nehemiah), and Chronicles.

O ye house of Israel, have ye offered, &c. It is more emphatic to keep the order of the Greek. Read, Did ye offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?The whole passage to the end of Acts 7:43 is a quotation from Amos (Acts 5:25-27). The question in this verse is to be answered in the negative, for in their hearts, though they were sacrificing to Jehovah, they had turned back into Egypt, and such service God counts as no service at all.