The Story of Moses, the Leader of the Jewish People

猶太民族領袖摩西的故事

Some time during the twentieth century before our era, a small and unimportant tribe of Semitic shepherds had left its old home and moved westward, trying to find new pastures. This tribe of shepherds was known as the Hebrews or, as we call them, the Jews. They had wandered far and wide for many years before they had been given shelter in Egypt.

公元前2000年的某一天，一支小而不重要的閃米特游牧部落踏上了流浪的旅程。這支游牧部落被稱為希伯來人，我們通常叫他們猶太人。他們輾轉而行，經過長時間的悲慘漂泊之后，終于在埃及得到了一小塊棲身之地。

For more than five centuries they had dwelt among the Egyptians and when their adopted country had been overrun by the Hyksos marauders they had managed to make themselves usetul to the foreign invader and had been left in the undisturbed possession of their grazing fields. But after a long war of independence the Egyptians had driven the Hyksos out of the valley of the Nile and then the Jews had come upon evil times for they had been degraded to the rank of common slaves and they had been forced to work on the royal roads and on the Pyramids.And as the frontiers were guarded by the Egyptian soldiers it had been impossible for the Jews to escape.

他們在埃及居住了500多年，一直與當地居民和睦相處。后來當接納他們的國家被希克索斯人征服時，他們轉而竭力為外國侵略者效芳，總算使自己的牧場得以保全。經過長期的獨立戰爭，埃及人將希克索斯人趕出了尼羅河谷。此時，猶太人噩運臨頭了。他們被貶為奴隸，破迫在皇家大道和金字塔工地上像牛馬一樣干活。并目，由于邊境上有埃及士兵的嚴密看守，猶太人根本不可能逃出埃及。

After many years of suffering they were saved from their miserable fate by a young Jew, called Moses, who for a long time had dwelt in the desert and there had learned to appreciate the simple virtues of his earliest ancestors, who had kept away from cities and city-life and had refused to let themselves be corrupted by the ease and the luxury of a foreign civilisatitm.

歷經多年的磨難，終于有一位名叫摩西的年輕猶太人帶領族人逃出了苦海。摩西曾常年居住在沙漠，那里的牧民遵循祖先的傳統，拒絕被外國文明的安逸奢華所污染。

Moses decided to bring his people back to a love of the ways of the patriarchs. He succeeded in evading the Egyptian troops that were sent after him and led his fellow tribesmen into the heart of the plain at the foot of Mount Sinai. During his long and lonely life in the desert, he had learned to revere the strength of the great God of the Thunder and the Storm, who ruled the high heavens and upon whom the shepherds depended for life and light and breath. This God, one of the many divinities who were widely worshipped in western Asia, was called Jehovah, and through the teaching of Moses, he became the sole Master of the Hebrew race.

摩西很欣賞祖先們的質樸美德，決意喚回族人對它們的熱愛。他成功地躲過了埃及追乓，帶領族人來到西奈山腳下的平原中心。在漫長、孤單的沙漠中，他學會了敬畏閃電與風暴之神的力量。這位神統治著天庭，牧人的生命、取火和呼吸都依賴他。此神是西亞廣受崇拜的眾神之一，名為耶和華。通過摩西對族人的教誨，耶和華成為希伯來民族唯一的主宰。

One day, Moses disappeared from the camp of the Jews. It was whispered that he had gone away canying two tablets of rough-hewn stone. That afternoon. the top of the mountain was lost to sight. The darkness of a terrible storm hid it from the eye of man. But when Moses returned, behold! There stood engraved upon the tablets the words which Jehovah had spoken unto the people of Israel amidst the crash of his thunder and the blinding flashes of his lightning. And from that moment, Jehovah was recognised by all the Jews as the Highest Master of their Fate, the only True Gud, who had taught them how to live holy lives when he bade them to follow the wise lessons of his Ten Commandments.

一天，摩西突然離開猶太人的營地不見了，有人傳言他是帶著兩塊粗石板出去的。當天下午，鳥云蔽日，風暴大作，人們望不見西奈山的山頂?？僧斈ξ鞣祷貢r，看啊，兩塊粗石板上已經劃刻滿了耶和華在電閃雷嗚中對以色列民族說的話。從這時起，耶和華被所有猶太人奉為他們命運的最高王宰。唯一的真神。他教猶太人如何按十誡的訓示去過圣潔的生活。

They followed Moses when he bade them continue their journey through the desert. They obeyed him when he fold them what to eat and drink and what to avoid that they might keep well in the hot climate. And finally after many years of wandering they came to a land which seemed pleasant and prosperous. It was called Palestine. Unfortunately, the mainland. Palestine, was already inhabited by another Semitic race, called the Canaanites. But the Jews forced their way into the valleys and built themselves cities and constructed
a mighty temple in a town which they named Jerusalem, the Home of Peace.

摩西帶領猶太人繼續其穿越沙漠的旅程，人們都跟隨著他。摩西告訴他們該吃什么，喝什么以及怎樣做才能在炎熱氣候中保持身體健康，他們都一一遵從。經過多年的艱難跋涉，猶太人終于來到一塊快樂而富饒的土地。此地名為巴勒斯坦，很不幸的是，此時的巴勒斯坦內陸已經被另一支閃米特部族迦南人占據。然而猶太人奮力沖開道路，進入山谷，建立起許多城市。他們修筑了一座敬奉耶和華的宏偉廟宇，并將廟宇所在的城市命名為“耶路撒冷”，意思是“和平之鄉”。

As for Moses, he was no longer the leader of his people. He had been allowed to see the mountain ridges of Palestine from afar. Then he had closed his tired eyes for all time. He had worked faithfully and hard to please Jehovah. Not only had he guided his tribesmen out of foreign slavery into the tree and independent life of a new home but he had also made the Jews the first of all nations to worship a single God.

至于摩西，此時的他已不再是猶太人的領袖了。他安詳地望著遠方巴勒斯坦的群山，然后永遠地閉上了疲倦的雙眼。他一直虔誠而勤勉地工作，取悅耶和華。他不僅把族人從外國的奴役中帶到了一個自由獨立的新家園，還使猶太人成為歷史上第一個敬奉唯一神的民族。

課堂筆記：
1.希伯來人屬古代北閃米特民族，是猶太人的祖先。歷史學家們使用“希伯來人”來指稱《舊約全書》中那些族長們(如:亞伯拉罕、以撒等人)的后裔，其時間即從那些族長們生活之時直到他們在公元前2000年末期征服迦南(今巴勒斯坦)為止。以后這些人就被稱做以色列人，直到他們由巴比倫流亡返回逆南的公元前6世紀之末為止。此后這個民族便稱為猶太人。
2.當古埃及進入第二中間期以后，統一王國分裂，來自迦南的?？怂魉谷恕睭yksos)建立了自己的王朝，這是埃及歷史上第一個外族政權。
3.金字塔即埃及法老(最高統治者)的陵墓，它是古代埃及人智慧的結晶。金字塔大多建筑于古埃及王國第三到第六朝統治時期(公元前2800一公元前2300 )。第四王朝法老胡夫的金字塔最為雄偉壯觀。
4.西奈山又叫摩西山(Mount Moses )，是基督教的圣山，基督教的信徒們虔誠地稱其為“神峰”(The Holy Peak)。
5.《十誡》是《圣經》記載的上帝耶和華借由以色列的先知和眾部族首領摩西向以色列民族頒布的十條規定。據《圣經》記載，這是上帝親自用指頭寫在石板上的。猶太人奉之為生活的準則，也是最初的法律條文。

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