The Story of Moses, the Leader of the Jewish People
犹太民族领袖摩西的故事
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，一支小而不重要的闪米特游牧部落踏上了流浪的旅程。这支游牧部落被称为希伯来人，我们通常叫他们犹太人。他们辗转而行，经过长时间的悲惨漂泊之后，终于在埃及得到了一小块栖身之地。
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.
他们在埃及居住了500多年，一直与当地居民和睦相处。后来当接纳他们的国家被希克索斯人征服时，他们转而竭力为外国侵略者效芳，总算使自己的牧场得以保全。经过长期的独立战争，埃及人将希克索斯人赶出了尼罗河谷。此时，犹太人噩运临头了。他们被贬为奴隶，破迫在皇家大道和金字塔工地上像牛马一样干活。并目，由于边境上有埃及士兵的严密看守，犹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.
历经多年的磨难，终于有一位名叫摩西的年轻犹太人带领族人逃出了苦海。摩西曾常年居住在沙漠，那里的牧民遵循祖先的传统，拒绝被外国文明的安逸奢华所污染。
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.
摩西很欣赏祖先们的质朴美德，决意唤回族人对它们的热爱。他成功地躲过了埃及追乓，带领族人来到西奈山脚下的平原中心。在漫长、孤单的沙漠中，他学会了敬畏闪电与风暴之神的力量。这位神统治着天庭，牧人的生命、取火和呼吸都依赖他。此神是西亚广受崇拜的众神之一，名为耶和华。通过摩西对族人的教诲，耶和华成为希伯来民族唯一的主宰。
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，摩西突然离开犹太人的营地不见了，有人传言他是带着两块粗石板出去的。当天下午，鸟云蔽日，风暴大作，人们望不见西奈山的山顶。可当摩西返回时，看啊，两块粗石板上已经划刻满了耶和华在电闪雷呜中对以色列民族说的话。从这时起，耶和华被所有犹太人奉为他们命运的最高王宰。唯一的真神。他教犹太人如何按十诫的训示去过圣洁的生活。
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.
摩西带领犹太人继续其穿越沙漠的旅程，人们都跟随着他。摩西告诉他们该吃什么，喝什么以及怎样做才能在炎热气候中保持身体健康，他们都一一遵从。经过多年的艰难跋涉，犹太人终于来到一块快乐而富饶的土地。此地名为巴勒斯坦，很不幸的是，此时的巴勒斯坦内陆已经被另一支闪米特部族迦南人占据。然而犹太人奋力冲开道路，进入山谷，建立起许多城市。他们修筑了一座敬奉耶和华的宏伟庙宇，并将庙宇所在的城市命名为"耶路撒冷"，意思是"和平之乡"。
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，此时的他已不再是犹太人的领袖了。他安详地望着远方巴勒斯坦的群山，然后永远地闭上了疲倦的双眼。他一直虔诚而勤勉地工作，取悦耶和华。他不仅把族人从外国的奴役中带到了一个自由独立的新家园，还使犹太人成为历史上第一个敬奉唯一神的民族。
课堂笔记：
1.希伯来人属古代北闪米特民族，是犹太人的祖先。历史学家们使用"希伯来人"来指称《旧约全书》中那些族长们(如:亚伯拉罕、以撒等人)的后裔，其时间即从那些族长们生活之时直到他们在公元前2000年末期征服迦南(今巴勒斯坦)为止。以后这些人就被称做以色列人，直到他们由巴比伦流亡返回逆南的公元前6世纪之末为止。此后这个民族便称为犹太人。
2.当古埃及进入第二中间期以后，统一王国分裂，来自迦南的希克索斯人〔Hyksos)建立了自己的王朝，这是埃及历史上第一个外族政权。
3.金字塔即埃及法老(最高统治者)的陵墓，它是古代埃及人智慧的结晶。金字塔大多建筑于古埃及王国第三到第六朝统治时期(公元前2800一公元前2300 )。第四王朝法老胡夫的金字塔最为雄伟壮观。
4.西奈山又叫摩西山(Mount Moses )，是基督教的圣山，基督教的信徒们虔诚地称其为"神峰"(The Holy Peak)。
5.《十诫》是《圣经》记载的上帝耶和华借由以色列的先知和众部族首领摩西向以色列民族颁布的十条规定。据《圣经》记载，这是上帝亲自用指头写在石板上的。犹太人奉之为生活的准则，也是最初的法律条文。
