God asks the question to expose divided worship. The expected answer is no. Barnes explains: "That is, ye have not offered. The interrogative form is often an emphatic way of saying that the thing had 'not' been done." Gill grants that "there were some few sacrifices offered up," but because they were not offered freely, "with all the heart, and with faith," they were looked upon by God "as if they were not offered at all." Matthew Henry says that during that time sacrifices to God "were intermitted; they did not so much as keep the passover after the second year." Stephen uses the question to show that the fathers, not he, were the ones who turned from Moses and the law.

The prophecy answers its own question: "Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon" (Acts 7:43). Instead of true worship, the people carried idols. Stephen then turns to the tabernacle of witness God gave in the wilderness (Acts 7:44), and later charges his hearers, "ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7:51).

"The book of the prophets" refers to Amos 5:25-27. Barnes explains that "The twelve minor prophets were commonly written in one volume, and were called the Book of the Prophets." Amos had asked, "Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?" (Amos 5:25).

"The host of heaven" means, in Barnes' words, "The stars, or heavenly bodies." The "tabernacle of Moloch" in Acts 7:43 was, Barnes says, "the shrine, box, or tent in which the idol was placed." Amos 5:27 reads "beyond Damascus"; Stephen says "beyond Babylon." Barnes notes that the Hebrew has "Damascus," but says this "evidently denotes the eastern region, in which also Babylon was situated."

God asked this question because He wanted the heart, not just the ritual. Even when sacrifices were offered, God could treat them as not offered to Him at all, as Gill explains, since they were not offered "with all the heart." The people's hearts had "turned back again into Egypt" (Acts 7:39). The question reveals a God who sees past outward worship to where loyalty truly lies.

The words "God turned, and gave them up" show a sobering side of His ways. Barnes explains that God "turned away from them." When people persist in turning from God, He may let them have what they have chosen. Yet even in this history God did not leave Himself without witness. Stephen immediately reminds his hearers that "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness" (Acts 7:44).