Stories of the Bible
Bessie Edmond
Anna K. Lovett
北　京
人物关系表
(旧约)
Adam亚当：上帝所造的人类始祖
Eve夏娃：上帝所造的人类始祖，亚当之妻
Noah挪亚：亚当后裔，大洪水期间方舟的建造者
Abraham亚伯拉罕：犹太人的人文始祖
Sarah撒拉：亚伯拉罕之妻
Hagar夏甲：亚伯拉罕之妾
Isaac以撒：亚伯拉罕与撒拉之子
Ishmael以赛玛利：亚伯拉罕与夏甲之子
Lot罗得：亚伯拉罕的侄子
Rebekah利百加：以撒之妻
Esau以扫：以撒的长子
Jacob雅各：以撒的次子和继承人
Joseph约瑟：雅各的儿子，埃及宰相
Benjamin便雅悯：雅各的小儿子
Moses摩西：以色列人的领袖，带领人民摆脱了埃及人的奴役
Joshua约书亚：摩西的继承人，古以色列人的统帅
Samson参孙：古以色列人的大力士和民族英雄
Samuel撒母耳：古以色列人的领袖
David大卫：古以色列王
(新约)
John the Baptist施洗者约翰：古以色列人中的先知，预言了耶稣的到来
Mary玛利亚：耶稣的母亲
Joseph约瑟：拿撒勒的木匠，耶稣的父亲
Jesus Christ耶稣基督：上帝之子，人类的救主
Herod希律：罗马统治者所任命的巴勒斯坦地区的王
Simon Peter西门·彼得：耶稣的门徒之一
John约翰：耶稣的门徒之一
Matthew马太：耶稣的门徒之一
Juda犹大：耶稣的门徒之一，也是出卖耶稣的叛徒
Pontius Pilate庞提·彼拉多：统治犹太地的罗马总督，对耶稣处以死刑的掌权者
故事梗概
(旧约)
在很久很久以前，全能的上帝造就了天地及世间的万物；后来又创造了人类的始祖
——亚当和夏娃这一对男女，并将其安置在美丽的乐园——伊甸园中。
无奈，人类趋罪的天性使亚当和夏娃禁不住魔鬼撒旦的诱惑，偷吃了园中的禁果，让
上帝深感震怒和失望。二人随即被逐出伊甸园，并受到责罚，要世世代代辛苦劳作，以求
生存。伊甸园崩落后若干年，地上的人类已经繁衍众多，世间充斥着邪恶。上帝决定用一
场亘古未有的洪水，灭绝陷在罪恶中不能自拔的人类。挪亚是世上仅存的一个义人，因而
得到了上帝的眷顾。上帝暗令他在洪水到来之前，造一艘巨大的方舟，将家人及地上的动
物各选一对，带入舟内。这样，挪亚才躲过了这场劫难。
时代又跨越了上千年，从挪亚的后人中诞生了犹太民族的人文始祖——亚伯拉罕。他
的家族后来繁衍为古以色列民族，从这个民族中产生了人类的救主耶稣基督。
亚伯拉罕的操守和虔诚深得上帝的喜悦。他遵照上帝的吩咐，为了远离周围罪恶的环
境，率领全族长途迁徙，来到迦南。这是上帝应许赐给他的族人的福地，后来被称为以色
列国。在迦南，蒙上帝的恩典，已到垂暮之年，早已丧失生育能力的亚伯拉罕和妻子撒拉
居然奇迹般地生下了儿子以撒。从此以后，他对上帝更加心怀感激，笃信不疑。
在上帝的关爱下，几代人后，亚伯拉罕一支已经是人丁兴旺了：以撒生了雅各；雅各
生了十二个儿子，其中约瑟少年有志，才华出众，深得父亲雅各的宠爱，但是却遭到了众
兄弟的嫉妒。他们背着父亲把他卖到埃及为奴。在埃及，约瑟因其安邦治国的卓越才能，
受到了法老的赏识，被委以宰相之职。他帮助国家安然度过了七年赤地千里的大旱，在前
来粜粮的犹太人中，又与自己已经洗心革面的兄弟们重逢相认。约瑟与他们和解了，并把
父亲和全家人接到埃及居住。
约瑟死去多年后，埃及人开始虐待寄居在自己境内的以色列人，逼其为奴，过着暗无
天日的生活。这时，上帝兴起了一位伟人——摩西，并授与他以惊人的灵力。摩西听从上
帝的召唤，带领以色列人民对埃及法老进行了英勇的抗争。上帝的震怒也化做冰雹、瘟
疫、黑夜甚至死亡降临在埃及人身上，迫使埃及法老不得不同意以色列人离开自己忍受苦
难的土地。逃离埃及之后，在上帝的庇佑下，在摩西的带领下，以色列人历尽千辛万苦，
多次战胜了死亡的威胁，经过多年的征战跋涉，接近了自己的故土迦南，但是迦南这时已
被多个异族占领。面对强敌，以色列人有家不能归，只好在临近的沙漠中又滞留了四十
年。
摩西去世以后，上帝让智勇双全的青年将领约书亚继承了他的灵力，率领以色列人投
入了收复迦南的战争。在上帝的暗中相助下，约书亚以其超凡的军事才能逐一战胜了对
手，基本征服了迦南全境，并把土地分配给了以色列人的十二个支派。约书亚后来成为杰
出统帅或军事家的同义语。
然而和平没有持续多久，约书亚死后异族人的叛乱和入侵迭起。犹太民族在刀光剑
影、颠沛流离中翻过自己一页页血与火的历史，这也是英雄辈出的年代；有聪慧贤明的士
师撒母耳，有剽悍无畏的力士参孙，还有英勇善战的国王大卫……但是从本质上说，整个
《旧约》就是一部上帝拣选并拯救犹太民族的历史。
(新约)
光阴荏苒，时间推移到了犹太地被纳入神圣罗马帝国疆域的时代。在希律王统治下的
耶路撒冷圣殿中，天使长加百列告诉老祭司撒迦利亚，他会生一个儿子。撒迦利亚应当按
照上帝的旨意，给这个孩子起名叫约翰。
约翰长大以后，开始在南方旷野中传道。他预言一位远胜过自己的先知即将降临人
间，还大声疾呼让世人改悔，修直先知的路，迎接他的到来。
加百列又找到拿撒勒的一位名叫玛利亚的未婚姑娘，说她不久就会有身孕，还吩咐她
把孩子生下来，给他起名叫耶稣。玛利亚十分惶恐，因为自己还没有结婚。加百列进一步
说明，这是圣灵降临到她身上的结果，因为孩子是上帝的儿子。玛利亚顺服上帝的旨意，
欣然答应了。
接着，加百列又托梦给玛利亚的未婚夫木匠约瑟，讲明了实情，让他遵照上帝的安
排，迎娶并善待玛利亚，把上帝的儿子抚养成人。
结婚不久，时逢罗马帝国全境的人口普查，按照规定，约瑟带着怀孕已有数月的妻子
前往出生地伯利恒登记。结果，在当地一家客栈的马槽里孩子降生了。他们遵照天使的嘱
咐，给他起名叫耶稣。
人世救主的降生，使布满繁星的夜空产生了异象。这引来了敬奉者的膜拜，也引起了
残忍的统治者希律王的惊恐。他唯恐这位犹太王的问世会危及自己的宝座，必欲除之而后
快。但是上帝却提前告诉约瑟带着妻子儿女前往埃及避难。一家三口一直等到希律王死后
才从埃及安然地回来。
耶稣和自己的弟弟妹妹在这个谦恭的平民之家长大了。他子承父业，也做了一名木
匠。耶稣成年以后的施洗者是约翰。给他施洗的时候，约翰充满了敬畏之情。天空开启
了，圣灵像一只闪闪发光的鸽子降落在耶稣的肩膀上，从上天传来了上帝的声音“这是我
的爱子，是我所喜悦的。”从此，耶稣上帝之子的身份便昭示天下了。
魔鬼妒恨耶稣的信念和事业，便溜到他的身边，用地上的万般风流富贵引诱他，但都
遭到耶稣的严厉斥责，只好悻悻地走开了。为了让人们听从劝诲，耶稣又多次在公众场合
行神迹；他曾在宴会上把淡而无味的水变为浓郁芬芳的酒；曾在门徒们捕了一夜鱼却劳而
无功的时刻，让他们的鱼网瞬间涨满鲜鱼；曾转眼让瞎子重见光明；曾用五块面包两条鱼
为布满旷野的听道者变出丰盛的晚餐；还曾在山上和摩西与以利亚一同在云光中向门徒们
显现……耶稣行神迹是为了让更多的人敬畏上帝，远离罪恶，蒙恩得救。他在犹太全境赢
得了众多的追随者，其中最有名的是约翰等十二个门徒。
在把上帝的福音传遍四方的同时，耶稣也同一切压迫、贪婪、虚伪、邪恶等背离上帝
教诲的恶行进行了斗争。他曾两次前往耶路撒冷圣殿，怒斥在殿中从事集市交易的市侩，
并把他们驱赶了出去，清除了教会中的污浊。他多次在公开场合赞扬穷人对上帝的虔诚，
揭露富人和掌权者的虚伪和为富不仁。为此得罪了犹太人中的上层分子。他们暗中与罗马
统治者勾结，必欲置耶稣于死地。
耶稣作为上帝之子，有先知先觉之明。他深知自己受圣父派遣，来到世上，是要以生
命为代价，完成济世救民的使命。在预感自己来日无多的时候，他在圣城耶路撒冷附近的
橄榄山上同门徒们进行了一次长谈，预言了未来必定要发生的事情，那就是自己殉难以
后，还会再来到这个世界上，对所有的世人进行审判。笃信上帝的义人将升入天国，为非
作歹的恶人将堕入地狱。
在与门徒们共进的最后一次晚餐上，耶稣以从容平静的口气告诉众人，在座的门徒中
有一个人已经以三十块银币的价钱将人子出卖给了仇敌。叛徒犹大见自己的阴谋败露便匆
匆起身离去。不久，犹大就带领士兵赶来。这叛徒以与耶稣接吻为暗号，指引士兵逮捕了
他。
耶稣被捕以后，受尽士兵和不明真相的愚民毒打和凌辱，最后被判钉死在十字架上，
实现了他以自己的死换取世人的永生，以自己的血洗净世人罪恶的崇高愿望。
耶稣死后七天，墓穴大开，尸首不知去向，他的仇人和信徒顿时目瞪口呆。原来，人
子已经从死里复活了。复活了的基督在犹太各地多次显现，最后在与自己的十一个门徒道
别以后，冉冉升入晴空，与圣父在天上团聚。
目　录
人物关系表
故事梗概
PREFACE
THE OLD TESTAMENT
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
NOAH’S ARK
THE TOWER OF BABEL
THE STORY OF A LONG JOURNEY
HOW LOT’S CHOICE BROUGHT TROUBLE AND ABRAM’S BROUGHT BLESSING
THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM
THE BOY WHO BECAME AN ARCHER
THE OFFERING OF ISAAC
HOW JACOB CAME TO WRESTLE WITH AN ANGEL
JOSEPH AND HIS COLORFUL COAT
FROM THE PRISON TO THE PALACE
HOW JOSEPH’S DREAM CAME TRUE
A LOST BROTHER FOUND
FROM THE LAND OF FAMINE TO THE LAND OF PLENTY
BABY MOSES IN THE REEDS
MOSES AND THE BURNING BUSH
THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT
THE PASSOVER
HOW THE SEA BECAME DRY LAND,AND THE SKY RAINED BREAD
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
HOW THE LONG JOURNEY OF THE ISRAELITES CAME TO AN END
HOW MOSES LOOKED UPON THE PROMISED LAND
THE STORY OF A RED ROPE
HOW JOSHUA WON THE LAND OF CANAAN
SAMSON AND DELILAH
DAVID AND GOLIATH
DAVID BECOMES KING
THE NEW TESTAMENT
THE ANGEL BY THE ALTAR
THE MANGER OF BETHLEHEM
THE PROPHET IN THE WILDERNESS
JESUS IN THE DESERT AND BESIDE THE RIVER
JESUS’S FIRST MIRACLE
A NET FULL OF FISHES
THE TWELVE DISCIPLES AND THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
THE FEAST BESIDE THE SEA, AND WHAT FOLLOWED IT
THE GLORY OF JESUS ON THE MOUNTAIN
JESUS HEALS A MAN BORN BLIND
PALM SUNDAY
THE LAST VISITS OF JESUS TO THE TEMPLE
THE PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS
THE LAST SUPPER
THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
THE CROWN OF THORNS
THE DARKEST DAY OF ALL THE WORLD
THE BRIGHTEST DAY OF ALL THE WORLD
THE STRANGER ON THE SHORE
PREFACE
This book which you are about to read may serve as an introduction to the
Bible. The stories within are only some of the most well known, and most often
quoted; however, this is not meant to imply that stories not included are
necessarily less popular or less important. We hope that the readers will enjoy
the stories we have selected, and may then be encouraged to read further about
this great and important book.
注释
imply[imˈplai]v. 暗示
THE OLD TESTAMENT
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
This great round world on which we live,is very old; so old that no one
knows when it was made. But long before there was any earth,or sun, or stars,
God was living, for God never began to be. He always was. And long, long ago,
God spoke, and the earth and the heavens came. But the earth was not beautiful
as it is now, with mountains and valleys, rivers and seas, with trees and
flowers. It was a great, dark, smoking ball, with land and water combined into
one mass. And upon this mass there was no life.
While all was dark upon earth, God said, "Let there be light," and then the
light began to come upon the world. Part of the time it was light, and part of
the time it was dark, just as it is now. And God called the dark time Night,
and the light time Day. And that was the first day upon this earth.
Then, at God’s word, the dark clouds all around the earth began to break,
and the sky came into sight, and the water that was in the clouds began to be
separate from the water that was on the earth. And the arc of the sky, which
was over the earth, God called Heaven. Thus the night and the morning made a
second day.
Then God said, "Let the water on the earth come together in one place, and
let the dry land rise up." And so it was. The water that had been all over the
world came together, and formed a great ocean, and the dry land rose up from
it. And God called the great water Sea, and the dry land he named Earth. Then
God said, "Let grass and trees, and flowers, and fruits, grow on the earth."
And at once the earth began to be green and bright with grass, and flowers, and
trees bearing fruit. This made the third day upon the earth.
Then God said, "Let the sun, and moon, and stars come into sight from the
earth." So the sun began to shine by day, and the moon and the stars began to
shine in the night. And this was done on the fourth day.
And God said, "Let there be fishes in the sea, and let there be birds to
fly in the air." So the fishes, great ones and small, began to swim in the sea;
and the birds began to fly in the air over the earth, just as they do now. And
this was the fifth day.
Then God said, "Let the animals come upon the earth, great animals and
small ones; those that walk and those that crawl on the earth." And the woods
and the fields began to be alive with animals of all kinds. And now the earth
began to be more beautiful with all its inhabitants, but there were no people
in the world. So God said, "I will make man. He shall stand up and shall have a
soul, and shall be made in the likeness of God; and he shall be the master of
the earth and all that is upon it." So God took some of the dust that was on
the ground, and out of it he made man; and God breathed into him the breath of
life, and man became alive, and stood up on the earth.
And so that the man whom God had made might have a home, God planted a
beautiful garden on the earth, at a place where four rivers met. This was
called "The Garden of Eden."
This garden God gave to the man that he had made; and told him to care for
it, and to gather the fruits upon the trees and the plants, and to live upon
them. And God gave to the first man the name Adam.
But seeing Adam was all alone in this beautiful garden, God said, "I will
make someone to be with Adam, and to help him." So when Adam was asleep, God
took a rib from Adam’s side, and from it God made a woman; and he brought her
to Adam, and Adam called her Eve. And Adam and Eve loved one another; and they
were happy in the beautiful garden which God had given them for a home.
Thus in six days the Lord God made the heavens, and the earth, and the sea,
and all that is in them. And on the seventh day God rested from his work.
For a time, Adam and Eve were at peace in their beautiful garden. They did
just as God told them to do, and talked with God as a man would talk with his
friend; and they did not know of anything evil. It was needful for Adam and Eve
to understand that they must always obey God’s commands, so God said to Adam
and Eve: "You may eat the fruit of all the trees in the garden except the one
in the very middle. Eating the fruit of that tree would result in your death."
Now among the creatures in the garden there was a snake, and this snake
said to Eve, "Has God told you that there is any kind of fruit in the garden
which you are forbidden to eat?"
And Eve answered the snake, "We can eat the fruit of all the trees except
the one that stands in the middle of the garden. If we eat the fruit of that
tree, God says that we must die."
Then the snake said, "No, you will surely not die. God knows that if you
eat of the fruit of that tree, you will become as wise as God himself, for you
will know what is good and what is evil."
Eve then looked at the tree and its fruit. The fruit looked delicious to
her, and the idea that it would make one wise, brought forth a great deal of
temptation to taste it, despite God’s rule. She took the fruit and bit into
it, and then shared some of it with Adam.
Immediately, Adam and Eve knew that they had done wrong, and now, for the
first time, they were afraid to meet God. They tried to hide themselves from
God’s sight among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called and said,
"Adam, where are you?"
Adam answered, "Lord, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid."
"Why were you afraid to meet me?" God asked. "Have you eaten the forbidden
fruit?"
"The woman you created gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it."
Then God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?"
"The snake told me that the fruit would do me no harm, "answered Eve.
Then the Lord God said to the snake, "Because you have led Adam and Eve to
do wrong, you shall no more walk as other animals; you shall crawl in the dust
and the dirt forever. You shall hate the woman, and the woman shall hate you."
And the Lord God said to the woman, "Because you led your husband to
disobey me, you shall suffer and have pain and trouble all the days of your
life."
And God said to Adam, "Because you listened to your wife when she told you
to do what was wrong, you too must suffer. You must work for your food, by
digging and planting as long as you live. You came out from the ground, for you
were made of dust, and back again into the dust shall your body go when you
die."
And because Adam and Eve had disobeyed the word of the Lord, they were
driven out of the beautiful Garden of Eden, which God had made to be their
home. They were sent out into the world; and to keep them from going back into
the garden, God placed his angels before its gate, with swords which flashed
like fire.
So Adam and his wife lost their garden, and no man has ever been able to
enter it from that day.
注释
For God never began to be. be在英语中可以当"生", "存在"讲。例如: To be or not
to be, that is a question. (生还是死, 这是一个问题——莎士比亚)When did the PRC
come into being? (中华人民共和国是什么时候成立的?)
arc[αːk]n. 拱形
crawl[krɔːl]v. 爬行
inhabitant[inˈhæbitənt]n. 居民
This garden God gave to the man he had made. 这是宾语前置的一个例子。正常语序应
当是God gave this garden to the man he had made. 宾语前置或是为了强调宾语: This
gift you leave for Mary, and this, Richard. (这件礼物你留给玛丽, 这件给理查德)
或者是为了使上下文能有更为紧密的联系: That day I got a letter, and this letter
I forwarded to my boss immediately. (那天我收到了一封信, 这封信我立刻就交给了上
司。)
rib[rib]n. 肋骨
bring forth带来
NOAH’S ARK
Adam and Eve lived for hundreds of years before dying. And by the time of
their passing, there were many people on the earth, for Adam and Eve had had
many children; and these, when they grew up, also had children, who then grew
up to have children as well. So, after a time, that part of the earth became
quite heavily populated.
Unfortunately, as time went on, more and more of these people became
wicked, and fewer and fewer grew up to become good. All the people lived close
together, and few went away to other lands; so it came to pass that even the
children of good men and women learned to be bad, like the people around them.
And as God looked down on the world that he had made, he saw how wicked the
men in it had become, and that every thought and every act of man was evil. God
then said: "I will take away all men from the earth that I have made, because
the men of the world are evil."
But even in those bad times God saw one good man. His name was Noah. Noah
tried to do right in the sight of God. Noah walked with God, and talked with
him. And Noah had three sons, their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
God said to Noah, "The time has come when all the men and women on the
earth are to be destroyed, because of their wickedness. But you and your family
shall be saved, because you alone are trying to do right."
Then God told Noah to build a very large boat, or‘ark’. "For," said God
to Noah, "I am going to bring a great flood of water on the earth, in order to
drown all the people on the earth. And as the animals on the earth will be
drowned with the people, you must make the ark large enough to hold a pair of
each kind of animal, so that there will be animals as well as men to live upon
the earth after the flood has passed away. And you must take with you enough
food to feed both your people and the animals for a year." And Noah did what
God told him to do, although it must have seemed very strange to all the people
around to see this great ark being built where there was no water for it to
sail upon.
At last the ark was finished, and stood like a great house on the land.
There was a door on one side, and a window on the roof, to let in the light.
Then God said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and your wife, and your three
sons, and their wives with them; for the flood of waters will come very soon.
And take with you all kinds of animals so they may be kept alive upon the
earth."
Noah and his family boarded, and God brought to the door of the ark animals
of all kinds. Once all were in, the door of the ark was shut so that no more
people and no more animals could come in.
In a few days the rain began to fall as it had never fallen before. The
streams filled, and the rivers rose higher and higher, and the ark began to
float on the water. The people left their houses and ran up to the hills, but
soon the hills were covered, and all the people on them were drowned. And all
the animals were drowned, even the birds, for their nests in the trees were
swept away, and there was no place for them to land. For forty days and nights
the rain kept on, until there was no breath of life remaining outside of the
ark.
Although the rain stopped, the water remained upon the earth for more than
six months; and the ark, with all that were in it, continued to float over the
great sea. Then God sent a wind to blow over the waters and to dry them up, and
by degrees the waters grew less and less. First the mountains rose above the
waters, then the hills rose up; and finally the ark came to rest upon a
mountain. But Noah could not see what had happened on the earth, shut in as he
was. But he felt that the ark was no longer moving, and he knew that the water
must have gone down. So, after waiting for a time, Noah opened a window and let
loose a dove. At the evening, the dove came back to the ark, and in its bill
was a fresh leaf which it had picked from an olive tree. So Noah knew that the
water had gone down enough to let the trees grow once more. He waited another
week, and sent out the dove again; but this time the dove flew away and never
came back. And Noah knew that the earth was becoming dry again.
God then said to Noah: "Come out of the ark with your family and all the
living things that are with you in the ark."
So Noah opened the door of the ark and, with his family, came out and stood
once more on the ground. All the animals and birds and creeping things in the
ark came out also and began again to bring life to the earth.
The first thing that Noah did when he came out of the ark was to give
thanks to God for saving his family. He gave himself and his wife and children
to God, and promised to do God’s will. And God was pleased with Noah’s
offering, and said, "I will not again destroy the earth on account of men, no
matter how bad they may be. From this time no flood shall again cover the
earth; but the seasons of spring and summer and fall and winter shall remain
without change. I give to you the earth; you shall be the rulers of the ground
and of every living thing upon it."
Then God caused a rainbow to appear in the sky, and he told Noah and his
sons that whenever they or the people after them should see the rainbow, they
should remember that God had placed it in the sky and over the clouds as a sign
of his promise.
注释
wicked[ˈwikid]adj. 邪恶的
It came to pass. . . pass在这儿表示"发生"(happen)。come to表示一个逐渐的过程。
You and your family shall be saved. shall可以当情态动词, 用于第二和第三人称, 表
示"允诺", "警告", "恫吓"等等。此处是表示上帝对挪亚一家人的允诺。书中多次出现
shall的这种用法。例如: You shall no more walk as other animals.
ark[αːk]n. 方舟
. . . shut in as he was. As用在部分倒装句中, 相当于though/although引导的让步状
语从句。试观察: Young as she is/Young though she is/Though she is young/
Although she is young, she knows a lot about the world. (尽管她年轻, 却懂得很多
世事。)
dove[dəuv]n. 鸽子
olive[ˈɔliv]n. 橄榄; 橄榄树
creep[kriːp]v. 爬行
THE TOWER OF BABEL
After the great flood, the family of Noah and those who came after him grew
in number until, as the years went on, the earth began to be full of people
once more. Many of the people began to move southward into a land between two
great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates; and there they began to build a great
city, which would rule all the peoples around them. They found that the soil in
that country could be made into bricks, and that the bricks could be heated and
made hard; so that it was easy to build houses to live in and walls around
their city to make it strong against enemies.
And the people said to each other, "Let us build a great tower, that shall
stand on the earth and shall reach up to the sky. This way we may be kept
together, and not separated by great distances on the earth." So they began to
build their great tower out of bricks, which they piled up, one story above
another. But God did not wish all the people on the earth to live close
together, just as they had lived before the great flood. God knew that if they
all kept together, those that were wicked would lead away from God those that
were good, and all the world would become evil again, as it had been before the
flood.
And so, while they were building this great city and tower, with which they
intended to rule the world, God caused their speech to change. At that time,
all men were speaking one language. But now God made it so that, after a time,
the people that belonged to one family could not understand what the people of
another family were saying.
As people began to grow apart in their speech they also began to move away
from one another, and to form communities with people who spoke the same
language. This separation of peoples then prevented the further construction of
the tower, thus leaving it forever unfinished.
And the city was named Babel, a word which means "confusion." It was
afterwards known as Babylon, and for a long time was one of the greatest cities
of that part of the world, even after many of its people had left it to live
elsewhere.
Some of the people who left Babylon went up to the north, and built a city
called Nineveh, which became the ruling city of a great land called Assyria,
whose people were called Assyrians.
Another company went away to the west, and settled by the great river Nile,
and founded the land of Egypt, with its strange temples and pyramids.
Yet another company wandered northwest until they came to the shore of the
great sea which we call the Mediterranean Sea. There they founded the cities of
Sidon and Tyre, where the people were sailors, sailing to countries far away,
and bringing home many things from other lands to sell to the people of
Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt, and other countries.
And this is how the earth became, once again, populated with people.
注释
community[kəˈmjuːniti]n. 社区
confusion[kənˈfjuːʒən]n. 混乱
THE STORY OF A LONG JOURNEY
Not far from Babylon was another city called Ur of the Chaldees. Here lived
a people who did not pray to God. They prayed to idols, images made of wood and
stone. They thought that these images were gods, which could hear their prayers
and help them. And as these people who worshipped idols did not call on God,
they did not know his will, and they did many evil things.
Among the people at Ur, however, lived a man named Abram. Abram was a good
man, for he prayed to the Lord God, and tried always to do God’s will. The
Lord God, seeing this, did not wish to have Abram’s family grow up in such a
place, for then they too might become wicked.
So the Lord spoke to Abram, and said, "Abram, gather together all your
family and go out from this place, to a land that I will show you, far away.
And in that land I will make your family to become a great people, and I will
bless you and make your name great, so that all the world shall give honor to
it. If you do as I command, you shall be blessed, and all the families of the
earth shall obtain a blessing through you."
Abram did not know just what this blessing meant that God promised to him.
But we know that Abram’s family grew after many years into the Israelites, out
of whom came Jesus, the savior of the world.
Although Abram did not know just what the blessing was to be, he obeyed
God’s word. He took all his family, his sheep and cattle, and went forth on a
long journey, to a land of which he did not even know the name.
He journeyed far up the great river Euphrates to the mountain region, until
he came to a place called Haran, in a country called Mesopotamia. The word
Mesopotamia means "between the rivers"; and this country was between the two
great rivers Tigris and Euphrates. At Haran they all stayed for a time. Perhaps
they stopped there because the father of Abram, Terah, was too old to travel
further; for they stayed at Haran until he died.
After the death of his father, Abram again went on his journey, and Lot,
his brother Nahor’s son, went with him; but Nahor, stayed in Haran, and his
family, and children, and children’s children lived at Haran for many years.
From Haran, Abram and Lot turned toward the southwest, and journeyed for a
long time, having the mountains on their right and the great desert on their
left. They crossed over rivers, and climbed the hills, and at last they came
into the land of Canaan, which was the land of which God had spoken to Abram.
This land was named after a man who had lived there long before Abram’s
arrival. Much later, the land would be renamed "the land of Israel."
When Abram came into the land of Canaan, he found in it a few cities and
villages. But Abram and his people did not go into the towns to live. They
lived in tents out in the open fields, where they could find grass for their
sheep and cattle. There the Lord came to Abram, and said: "I will give this
land to your children, and to their children, and this shall be their land
forever."
And in thanks Abram built there an altar, and made an offering, and
worshipped the Lord.
Abram and Lot then moved their tents and their flocks to many different
places. And during their travels the followers of both men began to quarrel,
because there was not grass enough in one place for all to feed their flocks.
When Abram heard of the quarrel between his men and the men under Lot, he
said to Lot: "Let there be no quarrel between you and me, nor between your men
and my men; for you and I are like brothers to each other. The whole land is
before us; let us go apart. You shall have the first choice, too. If you will
take the land on the right hand, then I will take the land on the left; or if
you choose the left hand, then I will take the right."
This was noble and generous in Abram, for he was the elder, and ought to
have had the first choice. Thus Lot looked over the land from the mountain
where they were standing, and saw down in the valley the river Jordan flowing
between green fields where the soil was rich. He saw the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah upon the plain, near the head of the Dead Sea, into which the Jordan
flows. And Lot said, "I will go down there to the plain."
And he went down the mountain to the plain, with his tents and his men, and
his flocks of sheep and his cattle, leaving the land on the mountains, which
was not so good, to his uncle Abram. Perhaps Lot did not know that the people
in Sodom were the most wicked of all the people in the land; but he went to
live near them, and gradually moved his tent closer to Sodom, until after a
time he was living in that wicked city.
Meanwhile, Abram went to live near the city of Hebron, in the south, under
an oak tree; and there again he built an altar to the Lord.
注释
worship[ˈwəː∫ip]v. ＆n. 崇拜
Israelite[ˈizriəlait]adj. ＆n. 古以色列的, 犹太的; 古以色列人; 犹太人
savior[ˈseivjə]n. 救星
altar[ˈɔːltə]n. 祭坛
flock[flɔk]n. (牲畜)群
generous[ˈdʒenərəs]adj. 慷慨的; 大度的
. . . and saw down in the valley the river Jordan flowing between green fields
where the soil was rich. 这句话应当这样分析, down in the valley: 地点状语; the
river Jordan: 宾语; flowing: 分词做宾语补语
oak[əuk]n. 橡树; 橡木
HOW LOT’S CHOICE BROUGHT TROUBLE AND ABRAM’S
BROUGHT BLESSING
So Lot lived in Sodom, and Abram lived in his tent on the mountains of
Canaan. One day the Lord God spoke to the latter, saying: "Fear not, Abram: I
will keep you safe; and I will give you a very great reward for serving me."
Abram replied, "O Lord God, what good can anything do to me, since I have
no child to whom I can give it." For although Abram had a large family of
people around him, and many servants, he had no sons, and he and his wife,
Sarai, were both old.
And that night God brought Abram out of his tent and said to him: "Look now
up to the sky and count the stars if you can. The people who shall spring from
you in the years to come shall be many more than all the stars that you can
see." Although Abram could not at that time see how God’s promise could be
kept, he believed in the Lord’s promise. And we know that it was kept, for the
Israelite people in the Bible, and the Jews everywhere in the world now, all
came from Abram.
After that, one day, just as the sun was going down, God came to Abram
again and told him many things that should come to pass. "Abram, I will make
you a father of many nations. And your name shall be changed. You shall, from
now on, go by the name of Abraham, a word that means‘Father of a vast
people.’ And your wife’s name shall also be changed. She shall be called
Sarah; that is, ‘Princess.’ And you and Sarah shall have a son, and you shall
name him Isaac; and he shall have sons when he becomes a man, and those who
spring from him shall be very many people. And after your life is ended, those
who are to come from you shall go into a strange land. The people of that land
shall make slaves of them, and shall be cruel to them. And they shall stay in
that strange land for four hundred years; and afterward they shall come out of
that land, not any more as slaves, but very rich. And after the four hundred
years they shall come back to this land, and this shall be their home. All this
shall come to pass after your life, for you shall die in peace and be buried in
a good old age. And all this land where you are living shall belong to your
people."
So a promise was made between God and Abram. God promised to give Abram a
son and a people and a land, and Abram promised to serve God faithfully.
Such a promise as this, made by two people to each other, was called a
covenant; and this was God’s covenant with Abram.
注释
covenant[ˈkʌvənənt]n. 契约
THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM
One day Abraham(for we shall now call him by his newly God-given name)was
sitting in the door of his tent, when he saw three men coming toward him. He
knew from their looks that they were not common men. They were angels; and one
of them was the Lord God himself, coming in the form of a man.
When Abraham saw these men, he went out to meet them and bowed to them; and
he said to the one who was the leader, "My Lord, come and rest a little under
the tree. Let me send for water to wash your feet; and take some food; and stay
with us a little while."
So this strange person, who was God in the form of a man, sat with his two
followers in Abraham’s tent, and talked with him. He told Abraham again that
in a very little time God would send to him and Sarah a little boy, whose name
should be Isaac. Then the three men rose up to go, and two of them went on the
road which led toward Sodom, down on the plain of Jordan. But the one who
Abraham called "My Lord" stopped after the others had gone away, and said, "I
will tell Abraham what I am going to do, because I know that he will teach his
children and all those that live with him to obey the will of the Lord, and to
do right. Therefore, listen Abraham. I am going down to the city of Sodom and
the other cities that are near it, and I am going to see if the city is as bad
as it seems to be; for the wickedness of the city is like a cry coming up
before the Lord."
And Abraham, who feared God may destroy the cities, said, "Will you destroy
the good with the bad in Sodom? Perhaps there may be ten good people in the
city. Will you not spare the city for them? Shall not the Judge and Ruler of
all the earth do right?"
And the Lord said: "If I find in Sodom ten good people, then I will not
destroy the city."
Then the Lord in the form of a man went on his way toward Sodom, and
Abraham turned back and went to his tent.
Meanwhile, the two angels who had visited Abraham went down to Sodom and
walked through the city, trying to find some good men; for if they could find
only ten, the city would be saved. But the only good man whom they could find
was Lot. He took the angels, thinking them men, into his house and treated them
kindly and made a supper for them.
The men of Sodom, when they found that strangers were in Lot’s house, came
before the house in the street and tried to take the two men outside in order
to harm them. But the men of Sodom could do nothing against them, for when they
tried to break open the door, the two angels struck them blind. Then the angels
said to Lot: "Have you here any others besides yourself; any family? If so, get
them out of this city quickly, for we are here to destroy this place, because
it is wicked." Then Lot went to the houses where his sons-in-law, the husbands
of his daughters, lived and said to them: "Hurry, and get out of this place,
for the Lord will destroy it."
But his sons-in-law would not believe his words, and only laughed at him.
Thus, he could not save his married children.
When the sun began to rise, the two angels again urged Lot to go as quickly
as possible. But Lot was slow to leave his house and his married daughters, and
all that he had; and the two angels took hold of him, and of his wife, and his
two unmarried daughters; and the angels dragged them out of the city. And when
they had brought Lot and his wife and his daughters out of the city, one of the
angels said to him: "Now run, and do not look behind you or you may be
destroyed!"
Then, as soon as Lot and his family were safely out of Sodom, the Lord
caused a rain of fire to fall upon Sodom and the other cities on the plain.
With the fire came great clouds of sulphur smoke, covering all the plain. And
thus the cities were destroyed, and all the people in them; not one man, woman,
or child was left. While Lot and his family were flying from the city, Lot’s
wife stopped and looked back; and she became a column of salt, standing there
upon the plain. Lot and his two daughters escaped and climbed up the mountain,
away from the plain, and found a cave where they then lived.
So Lot lost his wife and all that he had, because he had made his home
among the wicked people of Sodom.
And when Abraham, from his tent door on the mountain, looked down toward
the plain, the smoke was rising from it like the smoke of a great fire. And
that was the end of the cities of the plain, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the other
cities with them.
注释
urge[əːdʒ]v. 催促
sulphur[ˈsʌlfə]n. 硫磺
THE BOY WHO BECAME AN ARCHER
After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Abraham moved his tent and his
camp away from that part of the land, and went to live near a place called
Gerar, in the southwest, not far from the Great Sea. And there at last, the
child whom God had promised to Abraham and Sarah was born.
The child was named Isaac, as God had told Abraham he should be named. And
Abraham and Sarah were so happy to have a little boy, that after a time they
gave a great dinner to all the people in honor of him.
At that time, Sarah had an Egyptian maid named Hagar, who also had a child.
He was called Ishmael. Thus, there were two boys in Abraham’s tent, the older
boy, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, and the younger boy, Isaac, the son of Abraham
and Sarah. Ishmael did not like little Isaac, and did not trea thim kindly.
This made Isaac’s mother, Sarah, very angry, and she said to her husband, "I
do not wish to have this boy Ishmael growing up with my son Isaac. Send away
Hagar and her boy, for they are a trouble to me."
And Abraham felt very sorry to have trouble come between Sarah and Hagar,
and between Isaac and Ishmael; for Abraham was a kind and good man, and he was
friendly to them all. But the Lord ordered him to do as Sarah had asked, for he
would protect Ishmael and make a great people of his descendants.
So the next morning, Abraham sent Hagar and her boy away, expecting them to
go back to the land of Egypt, from which Hagar had come. He gave them some food
for the journey, and a container of water to drink by the way. And Hagar went
away from Abraham’s tent, leading her little boy. But along the way she lost
the road and wandered over the desert, not knowing where she was, until all the
water in the bottle was used up; and her poor boy, in the hot sun and the
burning sand, had nothing to drink. Thinking he would die of terrible thirst,
she laid him down under a little bush, and then prepared to leave him, for she
could not bear to see her poor boy die.
And just at that moment, while Hagar was crying, she heard a voice saying
to her, "Hagar, what is your trouble? Do not be afraid. God has heard your cry,
and the cry of your child. God will take care of you both, and will make from
your boy a great nation of people."
It was the voice of an angel from heaven; and then Hagar looked, and there
close at hand was a spring of water in the desert. How glad Hagar was as she
filled the bottle with water and took it to her suffering boy under the bush!
After this, Hagar did not go down to Egypt. She found a place near this
spring, where she lived and brought up her son in the wilderness, far from
other people. And God was with Ishmael, and cared for him. And Ishmael grew up
in the desert, and learned to shoot with a bow and arrow. He became a wild man,
and his children after him grew up to be wild men also. They were the Arabians
of the desert who are living to this day in that land, just as the Jews, who
are the descendants of Isaac, are now living all over the world.
注释
archer[ˈαːt∫ə]n. 弓箭手
descendant[diˈsend(ə)nt]n. 后裔
angel[ˈeindʒəl]n. 天使
Arabian[əˈreibjən]n. 阿拉伯人
THE OFFERING OF ISAAC
In the time of which our story takes place, men worshipped God by building
altars of earth or of stone, and laying offerings upon it, as a gift to God.
The offering was usually a sheep, or a goat, or a young ox, or some animal that
was used for food. Such an offering was called "a sacrifice."
However, the people who worshipped idols often thought that it would please
their gods if they sacrificed their own children. God wished to show to
Abraham, and all his descendants, that he was not pleased with human offerings.
And God chose a way to teach Abraham, so that he and his children after him
would never forget it. At the same time, he wished to test the faith of
Abraham.
So God gave to Abraham a command which he did not mean to have obeyed,
though this he did not tell to Abraham. He said, "Take now your only son Isaac,
whom you love so greatly, and go to the land of Moriah; and there, on a
mountain that I will show you, kill him as an offering to me."
This command filled Abraham’s heart with pain. God had promised that Isaac
should have children, and that those coming from Isaac should be a great
nation. He did not see how God could keep his promise with regard to Isaac, if
Isaac should be killed as an offering: unless, indeed, God should raise him up
from the dead afterward.
But Abraham at once obeyed God’s command. He took two young men with him,
and an ass carrying wood for the fire; and he went toward the mountain in the
north, Isaac his son walking by his side. For two days they walked, sleeping
under the trees at night in the open country. And on the third day, Abraham saw
the mountain far away. And as they drew near to the mountain, Abraham said to
the young men: "Stay here, while I go up the mountain with Isaac to worship;
and when we have worshipped, we will come back to you." For Abraham believed
that in some way God would bring back Isaac to life. He took the wood from the
ass, and placed it on Isaac, and the two walked up the mountain together.
As they were walking Isaac said, "Father, here is the wood, but where is
the lamb for the offering?"
And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide himself the lamb."
When they came to the top of the mountain, Abraham built an altar of stones
and earth, and on it he placed the wood. Then he tied the hands and the feet of
Isaac, and laid him on the wood on the altar. Abraham then lifted up his hand,
holding a knife to kill his son, when suddenly an angel of the Lord called to
Abraham, saying:
"Abraham! Abraham!"
"Yes, Lord?" Abraham replied.
"Do not harm your son. Now I know that you love God more than you love your
only son, and that you are obedient to God."
What a relief and a joy these words from heaven brought to the heart of
Abraham! He then looked around, and there on the mountaintop was a lamb. And
Abraham took it and made sacrifice of it. And in this way Abraham’s words came
true when he said that God would provide for himself a lamb.
This request of God’s did much good. It showed to Abraham, and to Isaac
also, that Isaac belonged to God. Then it showed to Abraham, and to all the
people after him, that God did not wish children or men killed as offerings for
worship; and while all the people around offered such sacrifices, the
Israelites, who came from Abraham and from Isaac, never offered them, but
offered oxen and sheep and goats instead. And the request of God’s looked
forward to a time when, just as Abraham gave his son as an offering, God should
give his Son Jesus Christ to die for the world.
At this time Abraham was living at a place called Beersheba, on the border
of the desert, south of the land of Canaan. From Beersheba he took his journey
to the mountain, and to Beersheba he came again after the offering on the
mountain. Beersheba was the home of Abraham during most of his later years.
注释
He did not see how God could keep his promise with regard to Isaac, if Isaac
should be killed as an offering: unless, indeed, God should raise him up from
the dead afterward. 这句话中, see的意思是"明白", "理解", 而不是"看见"。
例如: Do you see my point now? (你懂得我的意思了吗?)
I can see no reason for your absence. (我不明白你为什么不来。)
With regard to: 对于; 关于例: They held a talk with regard to the border
dispute. (关于/对于边界争端, 他们举行了一次谈判。)
两次出现的should是用于状语从句中的一种虚拟式, 表示事情发生的可能性很小, 或者说,
说话人很不情愿此种事情的发生。例如: If he should come tomorrow, tell him to
stay on. (万一他明天来, 让他别走了。)What if an earthquake should happen? (要是
发生地震该怎么办?)
Abraham then lifted up his hand, holding a knife to kill his son, when suddenly
an angel of the Lord called to Abraham, saying: "Abraham! Abraham!" When在这儿
不是从属连词(subordinate conj), 引导时间状语从句。它是等立连词, 也叫并列连词,
(coordinate conj)连接两个语法地位相等的并列分句。请看例子:
I had left when he came. (含有时间状语从句的主从复合句)
I was just about to leave when he came. (我正要离开, 就在此刻, 他来了/when连接
的并列复合句)
He knocked at the door when I was talking on the telephone. (含有时间状语从句的
主从复合句)
I was talking on the telephone when he knocked at the door. (我在打电话, 就在这
时, 他敲门了/when连接的并列复合句)
obedient[əˈbiːdjənt]adj. 驯服的
relief[riˈliːf]n. 安慰; 宽慰
HOW JACOB CAME TO WRESTLE WITH AN ANGEL
After a time, Sarah, the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac, died,
being one hundred and twenty years old. Following her death, Isaac became
lonely; and as he was now old enough to marry, Abraham sought a wife for him.
However, Abraham did not wish Isaac to marry any woman of the people in the
land where he was living, for they were all worshippers of idols and would not
teach their children the ways of the Lord. For the same reason, Abraham did not
settle in one place and build for himself and his people a city. By moving from
place to place, Abraham kept his people apart.
Abraham finally decided to send a servant to the city of Haran, where his
brother Nahor and his family stayed. There the people worshipped the Lord, and
Abraham thought that it would be well to find among them a wife for his son.
The servant journeyed to Haran and there found a beautiful young woman,
named Rebekah, who turned out to be the granddaughter of Nahor. Both families
were pleased with the match and Rebekah was delivered to the land of Canaan.
And when Isaac saw Rebekah, he loved her; and she became his wife, and they
were faithful to each other as long as they both lived.
Afterward, Abraham died, he was almost a hundred and eighty years old. And
Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave where he had buried Sarah. Then Isaac
became the owner of all the riches of Abraham. He was a peaceful, quiet man. He
did not move his tents often, as his father had done, but stayed in one place
nearly all his life.
Isaac and Rebekah eventually had two children. The older was named Esau and
the younger Jacob. Jacob, however, when he had reached adulthood, was spoken to
by God in a dream. And in this dream God said, "I am the Lord, your God. The
land where you are lying shall belong to you and to your children after you;
and your children shall spread abroad over the lands in all directions."
Jacob was later, while on a journey through the desert, visited by an
angel, with whom he wrestled for a whole evening without being defeated. As a
result, he was named "Israel," or "He who wrestles with God," by the angel. And
from that day forth, he was known by both the names Jacob and Israel.
Isaac soon died very old, and was buried by his sons in the cave at Hebron
where Abraham and Sarah were buried already. Esau with his children and his
cattle went away to a land on the southeast of Canaan, which was called Edom.
And Jacob, or Israel, and his family lived in the land of Canaan, dwelling in
tents, and moving from place to place, where they could find good fields for
their flocks.
注释
dwelling[ˈdweliŋ]n. 居所
JOSEPH AND HIS COLORFUL COAT
By now Jacob had eleven sons from two wives; however, of all the boys only
one was from Rachel, the wife he truly loved. This boy’s name was Joseph.
Soon, however, another child was born by Rachel. But now a great sorrow was to
come to Jacob, for soon after the baby came, his mother Rachel died. The child
whom Rachel left was named Benjamin; and now Jacob had twelve sons.
Of all his children, Jacob loved Joseph the best, because he was Rachel’s
child, because he was so much younger than most of his brothers, and because he
was good, and faithful, and thoughtful. As a token of Jacob’s favor, he gave
Joseph a bright colored coat. This raised a great amount of envy among
Joseph’s brothers. Joseph, however, was, in fact, a good boy, while his older
brothers often behaved badly. And what caused them to feel all the more anger
toward Joseph were two dreams that he related to them. He said one day: "I
dreamed that we were out in the field tying up wheat, when suddenly my bundle
stood up, and all your bundles came around it and bowed down to my bundle."
And the brothers said, angrily, "Do you suppose that the dream means that
you will some time rule over us, and that we shall bow down to you?"
Then, a few days after, Joseph said, "I have dreamed again. This time I saw
in my dream the sun and the moon and eleven stars all come and bow down to me."
And his father said to him, "I do not like you to dream such dreams. Shall
I, and your mother, and your brothers, come and bow down before you, as if you
are a king?"
His brothers hated Joseph then, and would not speak kindly to him; but his
father thought much of what Joseph had said.
Not long after, Joseph’s ten older brothers were taking care of the flock
in the fields near Shechem, around fifty miles from Hebron, where Jacob’s
tents were spread. Jacob wished to send a message to his sons, and he called
Joseph and said to him, "I wish you to take a message to your brothers, and
find if they are well, and if the flocks are doing well; and bring me word from
them."
So Joseph went forth on his journey, walking northward over the mountains.
As he approached Shechem, his brothers caught sight of his bright coat in the
distance, and one said to another, "Look, that dreamer is coming! Come, let us
kill him, and throw his body into a hole in the ground, and tell father that
some wild beast has eaten him; and then we will see what becomes of his
dreams."
One of his brothers, whose name was Reuben, felt more kindly toward Joseph
than the others; but he did not dare to oppose everyone openly. Reuben said,
"Let us not kill him; but let us throw him into this hole, here in the
wilderness, and leave him there to die."
But Reuben intended, after they had gone away, to lift Joseph out of the
pit, and take him home to his father. The brothers did as Reuben told them;
they threw Joseph into the pit, which was empty. He cried, and begged them to
save him, but they would not. They calmly sat down to eat their dinner on the
grass, while their brother was calling to them from the pit.
After dinner, Reuben chanced to go to another part of the field, so that he
was not at hand when a company of traders passed by with their camels on their
way to Egypt. Then Judah, another of Joseph’s brothers said, "Would it not be
better for us to sell him to these men, and let them carry him away?"
His brothers agreed with him; so they stopped the men who were passing, and
drew up Joseph from the hole in the ground; and for twenty pieces of silver,
they sold Joseph to these men; and they took him away with them down to Egypt.
The brothers then killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s coat in its blood, and
they brought it to their father, saying to him, "We found this coat out in the
wilderness."
And Jacob knew it at once. He said, "It is my son’s coat. Some wild beast
has eaten him. There is no doubt that Joseph has been torn to pieces!" And
Jacob’s heart was broken over the loss of Joseph, all the more because he had
sent Joseph alone on the journey through the wilderness.
注释
token[ˈtəukən]n. 象征; 记号
bundle[ˈbʌndl]n. 捆; 包袱
approach[əˈprəut∫]v. 接近; 靠近
pit[pit]n. 坑; 凹处
FROM THE PRISON TO THE PALACE
The men who bought Joseph from his brothers were called Ishmaelites,
because they belonged to the family of Ishmael, who was the son of Hagar, the
servant of Sarah. These men carried Joseph southward to Egypt. There they sold
Joseph as a slave to a man named Potiphar, who was an officer in the army of
Pharoah, the king of Egypt. Joseph served his master well and quickly became
very much liked by him. But Potiphar’s wife soon became his enemy, because
Joseph would not do wrong to please her. She told her husband falsely that
Joseph had done a wicked deed. Her husband believed her, and was very angry
with Joseph, and had him put into prison.
While Joseph was in prison, two men were sent there by the king of Egypt,
because he was angry with them. One was the king’s chief servant, and the
other was the chief baker. One morning, Joseph found them looking quite sad,
and he asked, "What’s the matter?"
And one of the men said, "Each one of us dreamed last night a very strange
dream; and there is no one to tell us what our dreams mean."
"Tell me," said Joseph. "Perhaps my God will help me to understand them."
Then the chief servant told his dream. He said, "In my dream I saw a
grapevine with three branches; and as I looked, the branches shot out new
growths, and the growths flowered, and the flowered growths turned into grapes.
And I picked the grapes, and emptied their juice into King Pharaoh’s cup, and
it became wine; and I gave it to King Pharaoh to drink."
Then Joseph said, "It’s quite simple. The three branches mean three days.
In three days King Pharaoh will call you out of prison, and will put you back
to work; and you shall stand at his table, and shall give him his wine. But
when you go out of prison, do me the favor of speaking to the king of me, so
that I may be set free."
The chief servant was pleased with what he heard. And then the chief baker,
hoping to have an answer just as good, also told of his dream.
"In my dream," said the baker, "there were three baskets of white bread on
my head, one above the other, and on the highest basket were all kinds of
roasted meat and food for Pharaoh; and the birds came, and ate the food from
the baskets on my head." And Joseph said to the baker, "The three baskets are
three days. In three days, by order of the king, you shall be hanged, I am
afraid; and the birds shall eat your flesh from your bones as you are hanging
in the air."
And it came to pass, just as Joseph had said. Three days after that, King
Pharaoh ordered the baker hung, and the chief servant was returned to his
former position in the palace.
Unfortunately, the servant, in his gladness, forgot all about Joseph. And
two full years passed by while Joseph was still in prison. But one night, King
Pharaoh himself had a dream, in fact two dreams in one. And in the morning he
sent for all the wise men of Egypt, and told them his dreams; but there was not
a man who could give the meaning of them. And the king was troubled, for he
felt that the dreams had some meaning, which it was important for him to know.
Then suddenly the chief servant, who was by the king’s table, remembered
his own dream in the prison two years before, and remembered, too, the young
man who had told its meaning so exactly. And he said: "Sir, I had a dream of my
own explained to me by a young man while I was in prison a couple years back.
And everything he said came true. I think that if this young man is in the
prison still, he could tell the king the meaning of his dreams."
Then King Pharaoh sent immediately for Joseph; and Joseph was taken out,
and led to the palace. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I have been told that you
have power to understand dreams and what they mean. Hear mine and tell me its
meaning. In my first dream I was standing by the river; and I saw seven fat
cows come up from the river to feed in the grass. And while they were feeding,
seven other cows followed them up from the river, very thin, and poor. And the
seven thin cows ate up the seven fat cows; and after they had eaten them, they
were as thin and miserable as before. Then I awoke. Later, in my second dream,
the same thing happened, except instead of fat and thin cows, there were large
and small heads of grain."
Joseph then said to the king: "The two dreams have the same meaning. The
good cows and the good grain mean seven years of plenty, and the seven thin
cows and thin heads of grain mean seven poor years. There are coming upon the
land of Egypt seven years of such plenty as have never been seen; when the
fields shall bring greater crops than ever before; and after those years shall
come seven years when the fields shall bring no crops at all. And the hunger
and need will be so bad that the good years will have been completely
forgotten."
"Now, let King Pharaoh find some man who is able and wise, and let him set
this man to rule over the land. And during the seven years of plenty, let a
part of the crops be put away for the years of need. If this shall be done,
then when the years of need come there will be plenty of food for all the
people, and no one will suffer, and all will have enough."
And King Pharoah said to Joseph: "Since God has shown you all this; there
is no other man as wise as you. I will make you ruler over the land of Egypt.
Only I will remain above you."
And Pharaoh took from his own hand the ring which held his seal, and put it
on Joseph’s hand, so that he could sign for the king. And he dressed Joseph in
fine robes and jewelry. And so the slave boy, who was wrongfully sent to
prison, came out a master over all the land.
注释
pharoah[ˈfεərəu]n. (埃及国王)法老
except instead of fat and thin cows介词的宾语除了名词、代词、动名词和宾语从句以
外, 还可以是形容词、副词和另一个介词词组。例如:
His English is far from satifactory. (形容词)
He heard a cry from upstairs. (副词)
He works almost around the clock except at noon. (另一介词词组)
robe[rəub]n. 长袍
HOW JOSEPH’S DREAM CAME TRUE
Joseph found his work at once, and began to do it faithfully and
thoroughly. He went out over all the land of Egypt, and saw how rich and full
were the fields of grain, giving much more than the people could use for their
own needs. And he called upon the people to give him, for the king, one bushel
of grain out of every five to be stored up. The people brought their grain,
after taking for themselves as much as they needed; and Joseph placed it in
great store- houses in the cities; so much at last that no one could keep
account of it.
The seven years of plenty soon passed by, and then came the years of need.
In all the lands around people were hungry, and there was no food for them to
eat; but in the land of Egypt everybody had enough. Most of the people soon
used up the grain that they had saved: many had saved none at all, and they all
cried to Joseph for help, and Joseph opened the store-houses, and sold to the
people all the grain that they wished to buy. And not only the people of Egypt
came to buy grain, but people of all the lands around as well, for there was
great need and starvation everywhere.
And the need was just as great in the land of Canaan, where Jacob lived, as
in other lands. Therefore, he sent the ten older brothers of Joseph down to the
land of Egypt. Jacob would not let Benjamin, Joseph’s younger brother, go with
them, for he was all the more dear to his father, now that Joseph was no longer
with him; and Jacob feared that harm might come to him.
Then Joseph’s brothers came to him to buy food. They did not know him,
grown up to be a man, dressed as a prince, and seated on a throne. Joseph was
now nearly forty years old, and it had been almost twenty-three years since
they had sold him. But Joseph knew them all as soon as he saw them. He decided
to test them to see whether they were as selfish and cruel as they had been in
earlier days. They came before him and bowed with their faces to the ground.
Then, no doubt, Joseph thought of the dream that had come to him while he was a
boy, of his brothers’ bundles of grain bending down around his bundle. He
spoke to them as a stranger, as if he did not understand their language, and he
had their words translated for him into the language of Egypt.
"Who are you? And from what place do you come?" said Joseph, in a stern
manner.
They answered him, "We have come from the land of Canaan to buy food."
"No," said Joseph, "You are spies from a country that wishes to make war on
us."
"No, no," said Joseph’s ten brothers, "we are not spies, we are the sons
of a man who lives in the land of Canaan; and we have come for food, because we
have none at home."
"Who is your father? Is he living? Have you any more brothers? Tell me all
about yourselves."
And they said, "Our father is an old man. We did have a younger brother,
but he was lost; and we have one brother still, who is the youngest of all, but
his father could not spare him to come with us."
"No," said Joseph, "you are not good, honest men. You are spies. I shall
put you all in prison."
And Joseph heard them whisper to each other, "This has come upon us because
of the wrong that we did to our brother Joseph. God is giving us only what we
have deserved." And Reuben, who had tried to save Joseph, said, "Did I not tell
you not to harm the boy?"
When Joseph heard this, his heart was touched, for he saw that his brothers
were really sorry for the wrong that they had done him. He turned away from
them, so that they could not see his face, and he wept. Then he turned again to
them, and spoke roughly as before, and said, "This I will do, for I serve God.
I will let you all go home, except one man. One of you I will shut up in
prison; but the rest of you can go home, and take food for your people. And you
must come back, and bring your youngest brother with you, and I shall know then
that you have spoken the truth."
Then Joseph gave orders, and his servants seized one of his brothers, whose
name was Simeon, and bound him in their sight, and took him away to prison. And
he ordered his servants to fill the men’s bags with grain, and to put every
man’s money back into the bag before it was tied up. Then the men started on
their return home, leaving their brother Simeon a prisoner.
When they stopped on the way to feed their donkeys, one of the brothers
opened his sack, and there he found his money lying on top of the grain. He
called out to his brothers, "See, here is my money given again to me!" And they
were frightened; but they did not dare to go back to Egypt, and meet the stern
ruler of the land. They went home, and told their old father all that had
happened to them; and how their brother Simeon was in prison, and must stay
there until they should return, bringing Benjamin with them.
But Jacob said to them, "My youngest son shall not go with you. His brother
is dead, and he alone is left to me. If harm should come to him, it would bring
down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave."
注释
bushel[ˈbu∫l]n. 浦式尔(谷物计量单位)
prince[prins]n. 王子; 亲王
throne[θrəun]n. 宝座; 王位
stern[stəːn]adj. 严厉的
deserve[diˈzəːv]v. 应受, 值得
This I will do. /One of you I will shut up in prison. 宾语前置, 以强调宾语。(见
《一个美丽的花园的故事》注释2)
donkey[ˈdɔŋki]n. 驴
sack[sæk]n. 口袋
grave[ɡreiv]n. 坟墓
A LOST BROTHER FOUND
The food which Jacob’s sons had brought from Egypt did not last long, for
Jacob’s family was large. Thus, when everything was nearly eaten up, Jacob
said to his sons, "Go down to Egypt again, and buy some more food for us." And
Judah, Jacob’s son, the man who years before had urged his brothers to sell
Joseph to the Ishmaelites, said to his father: "It is of no use for us to go to
Egypt, unless we take Benjamin with us. The man who rules in that land said to
us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your youngest brother be with you.’"
Israel said, "You did me great harm when you told him of Benjamin."
And Judah said, "Father, send him with me, and I will take care of him. I
promise you that I will bring him safely home. If he does not come back, let me
bear the blame forever. He must go, or we shall die for want of food."
Jacob reluctantly agreed, and gave his sons gifts of spices and perfumes to
present to the Egyptian upon their arrival. So ten brothers of Joseph went down
a second time to Egypt, Benjamin going in place of Simeon. They came to
Joseph’s office and stood before their brother, and bowed as before. Joseph
saw that Benjamin was with them, and he invited them all to dine with him.
Joseph himself arranged the order of the seats for his brothers, the oldest
at the head, and all in order of age down to the youngest. The men wondered at
this, and could not understand how the ruler of Egypt should know the order of
their ages. And Joseph sent dishes from his table to his brothers; and he gave
to Benjamin five times as much as to the others. Perhaps he wished to see
whether they were as jealous of Benjamin as in other days they had been toward
him.
After dinner, Joseph ordered his servant to fill the men’s sacks with
grain and to replace therein the money they had paid. "And put my silver cup in
the sack of the youngest, along with his money," he added.
The servant did as Joseph told him; and early in the morning the brothers
started for home. A little while afterward, Joseph said to his servant,
"Quickly, follow after the men from Canaan, and say to them, ‘Why have you
wronged me after I had treated you kindly? You have stolen my master’s silver
cup.’ "
The servant left immediately. And once he caught up with the men, he
charged them with theft. The brothers could not believe their ears. Why would
any of them steal from such a man? They took down the sacks from the donkeys
and opened them; and in each man’s sack was his money, for the second time.
And when they came to Benjamin’s sack, there was the ruler’s silver cup!
Then, in the greatest sorrow, they made their way back to Joseph’s palace.
And Joseph said to them, "What wicked thing is this that you have done? Did
you not know that I would surely find out?"
Then Judah said, "O my lord, what can we say? God has punished us for our
sins; and now we must all be slaves."
"No," said Joseph, "only one of you is guilty, the one who has taken away
my cup; I will hold him as a slave, and the rest of you can go home to your
father."
Joseph wished to see whether his brothers were still selfish, and were
willing to let Benjamin suffer if they could escape.
Then Judah came forward and fell at Joseph’s feet and begged him to let
Benjamin go.
"Please! Let the boy go. If he does not go back, it will kill our poor old
father. I will stay here as a slave in his place!"
Joseph knew now what he had longed to know, that his brothers were no
longer cruel nor selfish, but one of them was willing to suffer, so that his
brother might be spared. And Joseph could no longer keep his secret. He sent
all his Egyptian servants out of the room, and then said, "I am Joseph your
brother, whom you sold into slavery. But do not feel guilty for what you did.
There have been two years of need and famine, and there are to be five years
more, when there shall neither be planting in the fields nor harvest. It was
not you who sent me here, but God, and he sent me to save your lives. Now, go
home and bring down to me my father and all his family, for that is the only
way to save them."
And Joseph kissed all his brothers, to show them that he had fully forgiven
them. At first, they were in shock at the discovery, but hearing their kind
brother’s assurances they became once again calm and began to talk with him
more freely.
Afterward, Joseph sent his brothers home with good news, and rich gifts,
and abundant food. He sent also wagons in which Jacob and his wives and the
little ones of his family might ride from Canaan down to Egypt. And Joseph’s
brothers went home happier than they had been for many years.
注释
reluctantly[riˈlʌktəntli]adv. 不情愿地; 勉强地
spice[spais]n. 香料; 调料
perfume[ˈpəːfjuːm]n. 香水
jealous[ˈdʒeləs]adj. 嫉妒的
therein[ðεərˈin]adv. 在其中; 在那里
sin[sin]n. 罪恶
guilty[ˈɡilti]adj. 有罪的; 内疚的
famine[ˈfæmin]n. 饥荒
assurance[əˈ∫uərəns]n. 保证; 担保
wagon[ˈwæɡən]n. 马车; 大车
FROM THE LAND OF FAMINE TO THE LAND OF PLENTY
So Joseph’s eleven brothers went home to their old father with the glad
news that Joseph was alive and was ruler over the land. It was such a joyful
surprise to Jacob that he fell to the ground. But after a time he recovered,
saying, "Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die."
Then they went on their journey, with their wives, and children, and
servants, and sheep and cattle, a great company. They stopped to rest at
Beersheba, which had been the home of Isaac and of Abraham, and made offerings
to the Lord, and worshipped. And that night the Lord appeared to Jacob, and
said to him, "Jacob, I am the Lord, the God of your father; fear not to go down
to Egypt; for I will go down with you; and there you shall see your son Joseph;
and in Egypt I will make of your descendants a great people; and I will surely
bring them back again to this land."
They came down to Egypt, sixty-six of Jacob’s children and grandchildren.
Joseph rode to meet his father, and embraced and wept upon him. And Joseph
brought his father in to see King Pharaoh; and Jacob, as an old man, gave his
blessing to the king.
The part of the land of Egypt which Joseph gave to his brothers was called
Goshen. It was in the east, between Egypt and the desert. And, after the bad
years had passed, it proved to be a very rich land, where the soil gave large
harvests. Jacob lived to be almost a hundred and fifty years old. When he died,
a great funeral was held. His sons all carried his body up out of Egypt to the
land of Canaan, and buried it in the cave where Abraham and Isaac were buried
already.
Joseph, himself, also lived to a ripe old age, until he was a hundred and
ten years old. Before he died he said to his children, and to all the children
of Israel, who had now increased to very many people: "I am going to die; but
God will come to you, and will bring you up out of this land, into your own
land, which he promised to your fathers, to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. When
I die, do not bury me in Egypt, but keep my body until you go out of this land,
and take it with you." So, when Joseph died, they wrapped his body, as the
Egyptians did their dead; so that the body would not decay, and they placed his
body in a stone container. Thus, whenever the Israelites looked upon the stone
container, they said to one another: "There is the sign that this land is not
our home. This coffin will not be buried until we bury it in our own land, the
land of Canaan, where God will lead us in his own time."
注释
embrace[imˈbreis]v. 拥抱
wrap[ræp]v. 包; 裹
decay[diˈkei]v. 腐烂
coffin[ˈkɔfin]n. 棺材
BABY MOSES IN THE REEDS
The children of Israel stayed in the land of Egypt much longer than they
had expected to stay. They were in that land about four hundred years. And the
going down to Egypt proved a great blessing to them. It saved their lives
during the years of famine and need. In Goshen, they lived alone and apart from
the people of Egypt. They worshipped the Lord God, and were not corrupted by
the idols of their neighbors. And in that land, as the years went on, from
being seventy people, they grew in number, until they became a great multitude.
Relations between the people of Goshen and Egypt remained friendly for many
years after Joseph’s death. However, eventually, as time passed, there came a
king who failed to appreciate Joseph as a hero of the Egyptian people. He only
saw that the Israelites(as the children of Israel were called)were very many;
and he feared that they would soon become greater in number and in power than
the Egyptians. He said to his people, "Let us rule these Israelites more
strictly. They are growing too strong." Then they made slaves of the Israelites
and ordered all the little boys that were born to them killed.
But in the face of all this hate and wrong and cruelty, the people of
Israel were growing in numbers, and becoming greater and greater.
At this time, when the wrongs against the Israelites were the greatest, and
when their little children were being killed, one little boy was born. He was
such a lovely child that his mother kept him hidden. When it seemed too
dangerous to hide him further, she made a little boat and placed him in it, and
let it float down the river to a place where she knew the princess, Pharaoh’s
daughter, often bathed. She asked her daughter to follow the boat, in order to
make sure it fell into the right hands.
Fortunately, Pharaoh’s daughter, with her maids, saw the boat among the
reeds, and retrieved it. When the princess found a baby boy inside, her heart
instantly felt for the poor creature, and she determined to see that it was
safely looked after. Just then, a little girl came running up to her, as if by
accident, and she looked at the baby also, and offered to go find an Israelite
nurse to help the princess take care of the child. The princess agreed to this,
and the little girl, who was really the baby’s sister, ran and brought the
baby’s own mother to the princess. The king’s daughter was satisfied with the
woman and offered to pay her to look after the baby.
And it was in this way that the mother managed to safely reunite with her
child and raise him herself. For now the boy was protected by the princess of
Egypt, the daughter of the king.
When the child was old enough, Pharaoh’s daughter took him into her own
home in the palace. She named him "Moses," a word that means "Drawn out,"
because he was drawn out of the water.
So Moses lived in the palace among the nobles of the land as the son of the
princess. There he learned much more than he could have learned among his own
people, for there were very wise teachers among the Egyptians.
Although Moses grew up among the Egyptians and gained their learning, he
loved his own people. They were poor and were hated, and were slaves, but he
loved them, because they were the people who served the Lord God, while the
Egyptians worshipped idols and animals. When Moses became a man, he went among
his own people, leaving the riches and ease that he might have enjoyed among
the Egyptians. He felt a call from God to raise up the Israelites and set them
free. But at that time he found that he could do nothing to help them. They
would not let him lead them, and as the king of Egypt, strongly disapproving of
the young man’s sympathy for the Israelites, had now become his enemy, Moses
went away from Egypt, into a country in Arabia called Midian.
He was sitting by a well, in that land, tired from his long journey, when
he saw some young women come to draw water for their flocks of sheep. But some
rough men came and drove the women away, and took the water for their own
flocks. Moses saw this and helped the women by drawing the water for them.
These young women were sisters, the daughters of a man named Jethro, who
was a priest in the land of Midian. He asked Moses to live with him, and to
help him in the care of his flocks. Moses stayed with Jethro and married one of
his daughters. So, from being a prince in the king’s palace in Egypt, Moses
became a sheep herder, or shepherd, in the wilderness of Midian.
注释
corrupt[kəˈrʌpt]v. 腐蚀
multitude[ˈmʌltitjuːd]n. 大量; 大群
retrieve[riˈtriːv]v. 回收
princess[prinˈses, ˈprinses]n. 公主
There he learned much more than he could have learned among his own people.
could have learned: 虚拟语气, 表示对过去事实的假定, 因为摩西并没有在自己的人民
中长大。
sympathy[ˈsimpəθi]n. 同情
priest[priːst]n. 教士
herder[ˈhəːdə]n. 放牧者
shepherd[ˈ∫epəd]n. 牧羊人
MOSES AND THE BURNING BUSH
For forty years Moses wandered about the land of Midian with his flock,
living alone, often sleeping at night on the ground, and looking up by day to
the great mountains. He was a great man, one of the greatest men that ever
lived, but he did not think himself great or wise. He was contented with the
work that he was doing; and sought no higher place. But God had work for Moses
to do, and all through those years in the wilderness God was preparing him for
that work.
Those years, while Moses was feeding his flock in Midian, the people of
Israel were still working as slaves in Egypt. The king who had begun the hard
treatment of the Israelites died, but another king took his place, and was just
as cruel.
One day, Moses was feeding his flock on a mountain, called Mount Sinai,
when he suddenly saw a bush which seemed to be on fire. He watched to see it
burn, but the fire would not die. And Moses said to himself: "How strange! A
bush on fire, yet not burning." As Moses was going toward the fire, he heard a
voice come out of the bush, calling him by name, "Moses, Moses!"
He listened, and said, "Yes?"
"Moses, do not come near; but take off your shoes from your feet, for you
are standing on holy ground."
So Moses took off his shoes, and came near to the burning bush. And the
voice came from the bush, saying: "I am the God of your father, the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I have seen the wrongs and the cruelty that my
people have suffered in Egypt, and I am coming to set them free from the land
of the Egyptians, and to bring them up to their own land, the land of Canaan.
Come, now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and you shall
lead out my people from there."
Moses knew what a great work this would be, to lead the Israelites out of
Egypt, from the power of its king. He feared to take up such a task; and he
said to the Lord: "O Lord, I am only a simple shepherd. What you ask is too
great a work for me."
And God said to Moses: "I will help you to do this great work. I will give
you a sign of my presence with you. When you have led my people out of Egypt,
you shall bring them to this mountain, and they shall worship me here. And then
you shall know that I have been with you."
And Moses said to God: "But what if they do not believe me? What if they
have stopped believing in you?"
And God said to Moses: "My name is ‘I AM WHO IS,’ the One who is always
living. Go to your people and say to them: ‘HE WHO IS has sent me to you.’ Do
not be afraid; go to your people, and say to them what I have said to you, and
they will listen to you and believe. And you shall take the elders of your
tribes, the leading men among them, and shall go to King Pharaoh and say, ‘Let
my people go, that they may worship me in the wilderness.’ At first he will
not let you go; but afterward, I will show my power in Egypt, and then he will
let you go out of the land."
But Moses wished some sign, which he could give to his people, and to the
Egyptians, to show them that God had sent him. And God said to him: "What is
that which you have in your hand?"
Moses said, "It is my shepherd’s staff, which I use to guide the sheep."
"Throw it on the ground."
Then Moses threw it down, and instantly it was turned into a snake. Moses
was afraid of it, and began to run from it.
And God said, "Do not fear it, but take hold of it by the tail."
Moses did so, and at once it became again a rod in his hand. And God said
again to Moses, "Put your hand into your shirt and take it out again."
Then Moses put his hand under his garment, and when he took it out it had
changed, and was now as white as snow, and covered with a scaly crust, like the
hand of a leper. He looked at it with fear and horror. But God said to him
again, "Put your hand into your bosom once more." Moses did so, and when he
took it out, his hand was like the other, pure and unharmed.
And God said to Moses, "When you go to speak my words, if they will not
believe you, show them the first sign. And if they still refuse to believe your
words, show them the second sign. And if they still will not believe, then take
some water from the river, and it shall turn to blood. Fear not. Go and speak
my words to your own people and to the Egyptians."
But Moses was still unwilling to go, not because he was afraid, but because
he did not feel himself fit for such a great task. And he said to the Lord:
"Oh, Lord, you know that I am not a good speaker; I am slow of speech, and
cannot talk before men."
And God said, "Am not I the Lord, who made man’s mouth? Go. Your brother
Aaron can help you, for he is good with words."
At last, Moses accepted God’s task. He went from Mount Sinai with his
flocks, and took them home to Jethro his father-in-law; and then he went toward
Egypt. On the way, he met his brother coming to see him. Then the two brothers,
Moses and Aaron, came to the elders of Israel in the land of Goshen. They told
the people what God had said, and they showed them the signs which God had
given. And the people said, "God has seen all our troubles, and at last he is
coming to set us free." And they were glad, and gave thanks to God who had not
forgotten them.
注释
tribe[traib]n. 部落
staff[stαːf]n. 棍子; 全体工作人员
rod[rɔd]n. 棍; 杆
garment[ˈgαːmənt]n. 服装
scaly[ˈskeili]adj. 鳞状的
crust[krʌst]n. 表皮
leper[ˈlepə]n. 麻风病人
bosom[ˈbuzəm]n. 胸膛
If they will not believe you. 条件状语从句多用一般现在时表示将来的动作。若谓语
中出现will, 则表示主语的意愿, 译为汉语时, 多翻译成"愿意"。例如:
If you will wait for one more hour, probably you will meet her. (如果你愿意再等
一小时, 很可能就见到她了。)
THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT
After Moses and Aaron had spoken to the people of Israel the words which
God had given them, they went to meet Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Moses and
Aaron did not at first ask Pharaoh to let the people go out of Egypt, never to
return, but they said: "Our God, the Lord God of Israel, has commanded us to go
out, with all our people, a journey of three days into the wilderness to
worship him. And God speaks to you through us, saying, ‘Let my people go, that
they may serve me.’ "
But Pharaoh was very angry. He said, "What are you doing, calling your
people away from their work? I know why the Israelites are talking about going
out into the wilderness. It is because they have not enough work to keep them
busy."
And he made life worse for the Israelites by adding the collection of straw
to their usual task of brick-making. This was time consuming, and Pharoah still
demanded the same number of bricks to be made, daily, as before. Failure to
live up to these demands resulted in severe beatings and whippings. Thus, many
of the Israelites now became angry with Moses and Aaron, who, they thought, had
brought more trouble upon them. They said: "May the Lord God punish you! You
promised to lead us out, and set us free; but you have only made our suffering
greater!"
Then Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord said to him: "Take Aaron, your
brother, and go again to Pharaoh; and show him the signs that I gave you."
So they went in to Pharaoh, and again asked him, in the Lord’s name, to
let the people go. And Pharaoh said: "Who is the Lord? Why should I obey his
commands? What sign can you show that God has sent you?"
Then Aaron threw down his rod, and it was turned into a snake. But there
were wise men in Egypt who had heard of this; and they made ready a trick. They
threw down their staves, and their staves became snakes, or seemed to. They may
have been tame snakes, which they had hidden under their long garments, and
then brought out, as if they had been staves.
But Aaron’s rod, in the form of a snake, ran after them, and swallowed
them all; and then it became a rod again in Aaron’s hand. But King Pharaoh
still refused to obey God’s voice.
Then Moses spoke to Aaron, by God’s command, "Take your rod and wave it
over the waters of Egypt, over the river Nile, and the canals, and the lakes."
Aaron obeyed. He lifted up the rod and struck the water, in the sight of
Pharaoh. And in a moment all the water turned to blood, and the fish in the
river all died; and a terrible smell rose up over the land. And the people were
in danger of dying. But in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, the
water remained pure. The people of Egypt dug wells to find water; and the wise
men of Egypt brought some water to Pharaoh, and made it look as though they too
had turned it to blood. And Pharaoh would not listen to Moses, nor let the
people go.
After seven days, Moses took away the blood, but he warned Pharaoh that a
plague would come, if he refused to obey. And as Pharaoh still would not obey,
Moses and Aaron gathered up in their hands, ashes from the furnace, and threw
it up like a cloud into the air. And instantly boils began to break out on men
and on beasts all through the land.
Still Pharaoh refused to obey; and then Moses stretched out his rod toward
the sky. At once a terrible storm burst forth upon the land, and with the rain
came ice-rain, or hail, something that the Egyptians had never seen before. It
struck all the crops growing in the field, and the fruits on the trees, and
destroyed them.
Then Pharaoh was frightened, and promised to let the people go; and when
God took away the hail at Moses’ prayer, he broke his word, and would not let
the Israelites leave the land.
Then, after the hail, came great clouds of locusts, which ate up everything
that the hail had spared. And after the locusts came the plague of darkness.
For three days there was thick darkness, no sun shining, nor moon, nor stars.
But still Pharaoh would not let the people go. Pharaoh said to Moses: "Get out
of my sight. Let me never see your face again. If you come into my presence you
shall be killed." And Moses said, "It shall be as you say, I will see your face
no more."
And God said to Moses, "There shall be one plague more, and then Pharaoh
will be glad to let the people go. He will drive you out of the land. Make your
people ready to go out of Egypt; your time here will soon be ended."
注释
plague[pleiɡ]n. 瘟疫
straw[strɔː]n. 麦杆; 稻草
consume[kənˈsjuːm]v. 消耗
severe[siˈviə]adj. 严重的
whip[(h)wip]v. ＆n. 鞭打; 皮鞭
stave[steiv]n. 板子
tame[teim]adj. 驯服的
furnace[ˈfəːnis]n. 炉子
stretch[stret∫]v. 伸展
hail[heil]n. 冰雹
God took away the hail at Moses’s prayer. at在英语中表示引起反应的原因。例: He
was surprised at my reply. (对于我的回答他很吃惊。)
They came to dinner at the invitation of the minister. (他们应部长的邀请前来赴
宴。)
I got frightened at the strange sound. (听到这奇怪的声音我很害怕。)
THE PASSOVER
While all these terrible plagues were falling upon the people of Egypt, the
Israelites in the Land of Goshen were living in safety under God’s care. This
made the Egyptians feel that the Lord God of the Israelites was watching over
his own people. They brought gifts of gold and silver to the Israelites, in
order to win their favor and to win the favor of their God. So the Israelites,
from being very poor, began suddenly to be very rich.
Now Moses said to the people, "In a few days you are to go out of Egypt, so
gather together, get yourselves in order by your families, and your twelve
tribes; and be ready to march out of Egypt."
And the people of Israel did as Moses bade them. Then said Moses, "God will
bring one plague more upon the Egyptians, and then they will let you go. At
midnight, the angel of the Lord will go through the land, and the oldest child
in every house shall die. Pharaoh’s son shall die, and every rich man’s son,
and every poor man’s son. But your families shall be safe if you do exactly as
I command you."
Then Moses told them what to do. Every family was to find a lamb and to
kill it. They were to take some of the blood of the lamb and drip it onto the
entrance of the house, on the frame overhead, and on each side. Then they were
to roast the lamb and cook some vegetables. They were then to eat standing
around the table, with all their garments on, ready to march away as soon as
the meal should be ended. And no one was to go out of his house that night, for
God’s angel would be abroad, and he might be killed if the angel should meet
him.
The children of Israel did as Moses commanded them. And this supper was
called "The Pass-over Supper," because when the angel saw the doors marked with
blood, he passed over those houses, and did not enter them. And in memory of
this great night, when God kept his people from death, the Israelites were
commanded to eat just such a supper on that same night every year. This became
a great feast of the Israelites, and was called "The Passover."
And that night a great cry went up from all the land of Egypt. In every
house there was one who died, that one being the oldest son. And Pharaoh the
king of Egypt saw his own son lie dead, and knew that it was the hand of God.
And all the people of Egypt were filled with terror, as they saw their children
lying dead in their houses.
The king now sent a messenger to Moses and Aaron, saying: "Hurry; get out
of the land; take everything that you have; leave nothing. And pray to your God
to have mercy upon us, and to do us no more harm."
Early in the morning, after four hundred years in Egypt, the Israelites
went out of the land. They went out in order, like a great army, family by
family, and tribe by tribe. And the Lord God went before the host of Israel, as
they marched out of Egypt. In the day time there was a great cloud, like a
pillar in front; and at night it became a pillar of fire. So both by day and
night, as they saw the cloudy and fiery pillar going before, they could say,
"Our Lord, the God of heaven and earth, goes before us."
The two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who had sprung from Joseph, took
with them on their journey the stone coffin which held the body of Joseph their
father. And thus the Israelites went out of Egypt, four hundred years after
they had gone down to Egypt to live.
注释
(the)Passover[ˈpαːsəuvə]n. (犹太人)逾越节
Get yourselves in order by your families and your twelve tribes. get. . . in
order: 使…有秩序; by: 凭借; 根据; 依照
bid[bid]v. 吩咐
drip[drip]v. ＆n. 滴下; 一滴
frame[freim]n. 框架
feast[fiːst]n. 宴会; 节日
messenger[ˈmesindʒə]n. 信使
the host of Israel host of: large number of people or things(大群; 许多)
pillar[ˈpilə]n. 柱子, 栋梁
HOW THE SEA BECAME DRY LAND, AND THE SKY RAINED
BREAD
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, it was their aim to go at
once to the land of Canaan, from which their fathers had come. The shortest
road was that following the shore of the Great Sea, and entering Canaan from
the southwest. But in this region lived the Philistines, a strong and warlike
people; and the Israelites, after ages of slavery, were not fit to carry on
war. The other way was by the southeast, through the desert of Mount Sinai,
where Moses knew the land, for it was there that he had been a shepherd for
many years.
So the Israelites, led by the pillar of cloud and fire turned to the
southeast, directly toward the Red Sea, which rolled between them and the
desert. In a very few days they came to the shore of the sea, with the water
before them and high mountains on each side.
As soon as the Israelites had left their homes and were on the march, King
Pharoah was sorry that he had let them go, for now they would no more be his
servants and do his work. When word came that the Israelites were lost among
the mountains and held fast by the sea in front of them, Pharaoh called out his
army and his horsemen, and set out to either kill them, or re-enslave them.
Very soon the army of Egypt was close behind the host of Israel, and the
hearts of the people were filled with fear. They cried to Moses, saying: "Why
did you bring us out into this terrible place, shut in by the mountains and the
sea, and with our enemies close behind us? It would be better to serve the
Egyptians, than to die here in the wilderness!"
"Fear not," answered Moses. "Stand still, and see how God will save you. As
for the Egyptians, whom you now see following you, you will see them no more."
That night the pillar of fire, which was before the host of Israel, went behind
them and stood between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of the
Israelites. Seeing this, the Egyptians dared not venture further.
And all that night there blew over the sea a mighty east wind, so that the
water was blown away, and when the morning came there was a line of dry land
running through the great sea, and on each side of the path the sea foamed and
rose up high.
Then Moses told the people to go forward, and the pillar of cloud again
went before them; and the people followed, a great army. They walked across the
sea, and passed safely over into the wilderness on the other side. And thus God
brought his people out of Egypt, into a land that they had never seen.
When the Egyptians saw them marching into the sea, they followed. But the
dry strip of land had now become soft, and their wagon-wheels sank deeply into
it, and many of them broke off from the wagons. And the horses became stuck and
fell down, so that the army was in confusion; and all were frightened. The
soldiers cried out: "Let us fly from the face of the Israelites! The Lord is
fighting for them, and against us!"
By this time, all the Israelites had passed through the Red Sea, and were
standing on the high ground beyond it, looking at their enemies slowly
struggling through the sand, all in one heaped up mass of men, and horses, and
wagons. Then Moses lifted up his hand, and at once a great wave of water swept
up the sea on the south; the road over which the Israelites had walked in
safety was covered with water; and the host of Pharoah, with all his wagons and
horses and their riders were drowned in the sea. And this was, indeed, a
glorious sight to the people of Israel.
And now Moses and his followers were in the great desert, with nothing but
rock and sand on all sides. And the springs were few and very distant from one
another. Such a host of men, and women, and children, with their flocks, would
need much food and drink. It was not long before the people began to complain
of hunger and thirst. And Moses called upon God, and the Lord said, "I will
rain bread from heaven upon you; and you shall go out and gather it every day."
The next morning, when the people looked out of their tents, they saw all
around the camp, on the sand, little white flakes, like snow or frost. And
Moses said to them, "This is the bread, or manna, which the Lord has given you
to eat. Go out and gather it, as much as you need. But take only as much as you
need for today, for it will not keep; and God will give you more tomorrow."
So the people went out, and gathered the bread. Some took more than they
needed, not trusting God’s word that there would be more on the next day. But
that which was left over, after it was gathered, went bad, and smelled badly,
so that it was useless. This was to teach the people that each day they should
trust God for their daily bread.
Before the sixth day of the week came, Moses said to the people: "Tomorrow,
on the sixth day of the week, take twice as much bread as usual; for the next
day is the Lord’s Sabbath, the day of rest, and the bread will not come on
that day." So the next morning, all the people went out as before to gather the
bread. On that day, they found that the unused bread did not spoil, but kept
fresh until the next morning.
On the Sabbath day, some of the people who had failed to gather bread in
advance went hungry. So, that day, all Israel learned the lesson that one day
in each week belongs to God, and is to be kept holy to the Lord. And all the
time that the Israelites lived in the wilderness, which was forty years, they
ate the bread which God gave them daily. Not until they entered the land of
Canaan, did the bread cease to fall.
But for the present there still remained the problem of water. The people
came to Moses, and said in great anger: "Give us water, or we shall die. Why
have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us here in the desert?" And Moses,
after calling upon God once again, gathered the people around a great rock, and
with his staff he struck the rock. Then out of the rock came forth a stream of
water, which ran like a little river through the camp, and gave them plenty of
water for themselves and for their flocks.
注释
the Philistine[ˈfilistain]n. (古)非利士人
venture[ˈvent∫ə]v. ＆n. 冒险; 事业
foam[fəum]v. ＆n. 起泡沫; 泡沫
strip[strip]n. (一)条; 块
wagon[ˈwæɡən]n. 马车
glorious[ˈɡlɔːriəs]adj. 光荣的; 显赫的
complain[kəmˈplein]v. 抱怨
manna[ˈmænə]n. (上帝赐给以色列人的食物)吗哪
Sabbath[ˈsæbəθ]n. 安息日
spoil[spɔil]v. 变质
cease[siːs]v. 停止
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
In the third month after the Israelites had left the land of Egypt they
came to a great mountain which rises straight up from the plain, so straight
that one can walk up to it and touch it with his hand. This was Mount Sinai.
The Israelites made their camp in front of Mount Sinai, and stayed there
for many days. And God said to Moses: "Let none of the people go up on the
mount, or come near to touch it. If even one of your cattle or sheep shall
touch the mountain, it must be killed. This is a holy place, where God will
show his glory."
And a few days after this, the people heard the voices of many horns
sounding on the top of the mountain. They looked, and saw that the mountain was
covered with clouds and smoke, and lightening was flashing from it, while the
thunder rolled and crashed. And the mountain shook and trembled, as though an
earthquake were tearing it in pieces.
The people were filled with alarm. They came out of their tents, and ran
back from the foot of the mountain, and stood far off, trembling with fear.
Then God spoke in the hearing of all the people, as with a voice of thunder,
and said:
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
slavery." And then God spoke to all the people the words of the Ten
Commandments.
I. You shall have no other gods but me.
II. You shall not worship any man-made images or idols, for I the Lord your
God, am a jealous God.
III. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
IV. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and
do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
V. Honor your father and your mother.
VI. You shall not kill.
VII. You shall not commit adultery.
VIII. You shall not steal.
IX. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
X. You shall not desire your neighbor’s house, you shall not desire your
neighbor’s wife, nor his servants, nor his flock, nor anything that is your
neighbor’s.
Then God called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up, and
with him was his assistant, the young man Joshua. Joshua stayed on the side of
the mountain, but Moses went up alone to the top, among the clouds.
And there Moses stayed upon the mountain, alone with God, for forty days,
talking with God, and listening to the words which God spoke to him, the laws
for the people of Israel to obey. And God gave to Moses two flat tablets of
stone, upon which God had written with his own hand the Ten Commandments.
注释
commandment[kəˈmαːn(d)mənt]n. (《圣经》十诫)诫命
horn[hɔːn]n. 号角
commit[kəˈmit]v. 犯(过失或罪)
adultery[əˈdʌltəri]n. 通奸
witness[ˈwitnis]n. ＆v. 见证; 证人; 做见证
HOW THE LONG JOURNEY OF THE ISRAELITES CAME TO AN
END
The Israelites stayed in their camp before Mount Sinai almost a year,
studying God’s laws given through Moses. During this time, a tent, or
tabernacle, was erected from the belongings of the people, their jewelry and
cloth. This was made as a memorial to Israel. And within was housed the Holy of
Holies, or the Ark of the Covenant between the Lord and his people of Israel.
This was a chest of wood overlaid with gold, and within it were the tablets of
stone and other precious objects. It was the most sacred symbol in Israel.
Aaron was at this time High Priest, and his sons were priests who
ministered under him. They were made responsible for the care of the tabernacle
and all that was within it.
When the tabernacle was completed, God filled it with a cloud, which served
an assurance to the people of his presence there. When the cloud rose over the
tabernacle, Moses and his people began again their march; and when the cloud
rested upon it, they camped wherever they happened to be.
At last, the people of Israel came to a place just on the border between
the desert and Canaan, called Kadesh. Here they stopped and sent onward some
men to walk through the land, look it over, and then come back and tell what
they had found. Twelve men were chosen and sent on their way. After forty days
had passed, they returned carrying a large cluster of ripe grapes, and they had
this to say: "It is a rich land, very suitable to our way of life. However, we
found that the people who live there are very strong, and are men of war. They
have cities with walls that reach almost up to the sky; and some of the men are
giants, so tall that we felt that we were like insects beside them."
One of the men, named Caleb, said, "All that is true, yet we need not be
afraid to go up and take the land. It is a good land, well worth fighting for.
God is on our side, and he will help us to overcome those people."
But all the other spies, except another, Joshua, feared the natives too
much, and suggested turning back. Their report aroused great fear in the
people, and soon the Israelites were crying out against Moses, and blaming him
for their troubles. They said, "Let us choose a ruler in place of Moses, who
has brought us into all these evils, and let us turn back to the land of
Egypt!"
But Caleb and Joshua said, "The land of Canaan is a good land. If God is
our friend and is with us, we can easily defeat the people who live there."
God then spoke to Moses, saying, "How long will these people disobey me?
They are not worthy of the land that I have been keeping for you. Now turn back
into the desert, and you shall not enter the new land until forty years later,
or until all those who just sinned against me shall die. Then Joshua shall lead
your children into the land of Canaan. And because Caleb was also true to me,
he shall live to go into the land, and shall have his choice of a home there.
Tomorrow turn back into the desert by the way of the Red Sea."
When Moses told all God’s words to the people, some refused to turn back
and attempted to enter the new land. They were attacked and killed by natives
of the territory. Then, discouraged and beaten, the people obeyed the Lord and
Moses, and went once more into the desert. And in this desert the children of
Israel stayed nearly forty years; and all because they would not trust in the
Lord.
During this time the young men, as they grew up, were trained to be
soldiers and one by one the old men died, until very few of them were left.
When the fortieth year had almost ended, the people once again approached the
border of the land of Canaan. And here they were attacked by a people called
the Amorites. But the Israelites prevailed, thus marking their first victory.
They took control of all the land as far north as the brook Jabbok, and then
marched on toward Canaan. At last, they encamped on the east bank of the river
Jordan, at the foot of the mountains of Moab. Their long journey of forty years
was now ended, and before them rolled the Jordan River, and beyond the Jordan
they could see the hills of the land which God had promised them for their own.
注释
tabernacle[ˈtæbə(: )nækl]n. (古以色列人的)会幕
erect[iˈrekt]v. 树立
house[haus]v. 容纳
Holy of Holies神圣的地方
holy[ˈhəuli]adj. 神圣的
sacred[ˈseikrid]adj. 神圣的
symbol[ˈsimbəl]n. 象征; 标志
priest[priːst]n. 牧师; 教士
assurance[əˈ∫uərəns]n. 保证; 承诺
onward[ˈɔnwəd]adv. 向前
cluster[ˈklʌstə]n. 串; 丛
overcome[ˈəuvəˈkʌm]v. 克服; 战胜
arouse[əˈrauz]v. 引起; 唤起
territory[ˈteritəri]n. 领土
prevail[priˈveil]v. 战胜; 占上风
brook[bruk]n. 溪流; 小河
before them rolled the river Jordan在副词和介词词组起首的完全倒装句中, 不仅可以
出现简单谓语(一个动词), 而且可以出现复合谓语(两个以上动词)。例如:
From the west rose the morning sun.
In the distance could be heard the cries of women and children.
Within was housed the Holy of Holies.
HOW MOSES LOOKED UPON THE PROMISED LAND
And now that the work of Moses was almost done, he knew that his death must
be drawing near; and he gathered together the leaders of the tribes of Israel,
and reminded them of God’s law, and ordered that this law be passed down from
generation to generation. He then gave full charge to Joshua, whom God had
chosen to take his place as the ruler and leader of the people. He laid his
hands on Joshua’s head; and God gave to Joshua some of his Spirit that had
been in Moses.
Then Moses, all alone, went out of the camp, while all the people watched
him and wept. Slowly he walked up the mountainside, until they saw him no more.
He climbed to the top of Mount Nebo, and stood alone upon the height, and
looked at the Land of Promise, which lay spread out before him. Far in the
north he could see the white peak of Mount Hermon, where there is always snow.
At his feet, but far below, the river Jordan was winding its way down to the
Dead Sea. Across the river, at the foot of the mountains, was standing the city
of Jericho, surrounded with a high wall. On the peaks of the mountains beyond
he could see Hebron, where Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob were buried; he could
see Jerusalem, and Bethel, and the two mountains where Shechem lay hidden in
the center of the land. And here and there, through the valleys, he could see
afar in the west the water of the Great Sea. Then Moses, all alone, lay down on
the mountaintop and died. And as there was no man on Mount Nebo to bury Moses,
God himself buried him, and no man knows where God laid his body.
And after Moses there was never a man who lived so near to God, and talked
with God so freely, as one would talk face to face with his friend, until long
afterward Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and greater than Moses, came among men.
注释
. . . ordered that this law be passed down from generation to generation: order
后接的宾语从句用虚拟语气, 谓语部分是(should)be passed, should是可以省略的。
peak[piːk]n. 顶峰
THE STORY OF A RED ROPE
After the death of Moses, while the children of Israel were still encamped
upon the east bank of the river Jordan, God spoke to Joshua, and said: "Now
that Moses my servant is dead, you are to take his place and to rule this
people. Do not delay, but lead them across the river Jordan, and conquer the
land which I have given to them."
Then Joshua gave orders to his officers. He said, "Go through the camp, and
tell the people to prepare food for a journey; for in three days we shall pass
over the river Jordan, and shall go into the land which the Lord has promised
us."
To say this was very bold; for at that time of the year, in the spring, the
Jordan River was much larger than at other times. All its banks were flooded,
and it was running as a broad, deep, swift river. No one could possibly walk
through it, and no boats could cross it.
On the other side of the river, a few miles distant, the Israelites could
see the high walls of the city of Jericho, standing at the foot of the
mountains. Before the rest of the land could be won, this city must be taken,
for it stood beside the road leading up to the mountain country.
Joshua chose two careful, brave, and wise men, and said to them, "Go across
the river, and get into the city of Jericho; find out all you can about it, and
come back in two days."
The two men swam across the river, and walked over to Jericho. But they
were soon found out, and the king of Jericho sent soldiers to take them
prisoners. The two men, while searching for a hiding place, came to a house
which stood on the wall of the city, where lived a woman named Rahab. She
kindly hid the men, and informed them that the inhabitants were all quite
frightened of the Israelites, for they had heard of their victory over the
Amonites. The men, being greatly pleased to hear this, and being appreciative
of the woman’s help, promised to spare her and her family when the city is
attacked.
The two men then escaped from town by climbing down a rope from Rahab’s
window. And it happened that this rope was of a bright red color. The two spies
told Rahab to leave the red rope hanging from her window. They would then bring
the rope to the Israelites’ attention and warn them not to harm the people
inside. Then the two men returned to the Israelite camp and told their story to
Joshua.
Almost immediately, Joshua commanded the people to take down their tents
and walk down to the bank of the river Jordan. Then the priests took apart the
Tabernacle, and covered the ark and all the furniture in the Holy Place; and
ran the poles through the rings for carrying the altar, and made ready for
leaving the camp. When all were gathered at the river, Joshua said: "Let the
priests carry the ark of the covenant in front, and let there be a great space
between it and the rest of the people."
And all the people stood still, wondering, while the ark was brought on the
shoulders of the priests far out in front of the ranks of men, until it came
down to the very edge of the water.
Then Joshua ordered the priests to walk into the river, and a most
wonderful thing then took place. As soon as the feet of the priests touched the
water by the shore, the river above stopped flowing, and far away, up the
river, they could see the water rising and piling up in a great heap. Soon the
area where the priests stood became dry. Then, at Joshua’s command, the
priests carried the ark down to the middle of the dry bed of the river, and
stood there with it on their shoulders. And Joshua gave orders to the people to
march across the river.
When all were finally across, Joshua told the priests to bring the ark to
the shore. They did so; and then the waters began to flow down from above,
until soon the river Jordan was rolling by as it had rolled before. So now at
last the children of Israel were safely in the land which God had promised to
their fathers more than five hundred years before.
They set up a new camp, with the Tabernacle in the middle and the tents of
the tribes surrounding it. This place was named Gilgal, and served as the base
for the Isrealites for the remainder of their capture of the land of Canaan.
In the fields they found grain and barley in abundance. They gathered it,
and ground it, and made bread of it; and on that day the bread which God had
sent them from the sky for forty years ceased to fall.
There, in full view of the new camp, stood the strong walls of Jericho. And
an angel of the Lord came and visited Joshua and instructed him on the way in
which the city should be taken; and Joshua went back to the camp at Gilgal, and
made ready to march as God commanded.
After seven days of preparations, they drew out the army as if to fight
against the city. In front came the soldiers from the tribes on the east of the
river; then came a company of priests with horns; then came the ark of the
covenant, borne on the shoulders of the priests. And, last of all, came the
host of Israel, marching in order. No one shouted, nor was any noise heard,
except the sound of the horns. They marched around the walls of Jericho once on
that day, and then they all marched back to the camp. The next morning they all
formed in the same order, and again marched around the walls of the city; and
so they did again and again, marching once each day for six days.
On the seventh day, by God’s command, they rose very early in the morning,
and did not stop when they had marched around the walls once; but kept on
marching round and round, until they had gone about the walls seven times. When
the seventh march was ended, they all stood still. Even the trumpets ceased,
and there was a great silence for a moment, until the voice of Joshua rang out,
"Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!"
Then a great shout went up from the host; and they looked at the wall, and
saw that it was trembling, and shaking, and falling! It fell down flat at every
place but one, a place where a scarlet cord was hanging from a window. This was
Rahab’s home. She and her family were brought out and taken to Gilgal by the
Israelites. While some of the soldiers were taking care of Rahab, all the rest
of the army was climbing up over the ruined wall. The people in the city were
so filled with fear when they saw the walls falling down on every side, that
they did not try to defend it, but sank down helpless and were slain or taken
prisoners by the Israelites.
Thus the city was defeated. But the Israelites were forbidden to use for
themselves any of the treasures in the city. Thus everything was burned and
destroyed, leaving of the city of Jericho nothing but a waste and a ruin.
And Joshua said: "Let the Lord’s curse rest on any man who shall ever
build again the city of Jericho. With the loss of his oldest born shall he lay
its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates
of it."
After this, Rahab lived among the Israelites as though she were born of the
people. She married a noble named Salmon. And from her line of descendants,
many years after this, was born David the king.
注释
conquer[ˈkɔŋkə]v. 征服
bold[bəuld]adj. 大胆的
remainder[riˈmeində]n. 剩余(人或物)
capture[ˈkæpt∫ə]n. ＆v. 俘获物; 俘获
abundance[əˈbʌndəns]n. 大量; 丰富
instructed him on the way in which the city should be taken. on在此处表示"在…
方面"(on the way不是"在路上"的意思)。例如: a lecture on SARS: 一场关于非典的报
告。
trumpet[ˈtrʌmpit]n. 喇叭; 号角
scarlet[ˈskαːlit]adj. 鲜红的
cord[kɔːd]n. 绳子; 细绳
curse[kəːs]n. ＆v. 咒骂; 诅咒
HOW JOSHUA WON THE LAND OF CANAAN
The news of all that Joshua and the men of Israel had done at Jericho went
through all the land. Everywhere the tribes of Canaan prepared to fight these
strangers who had so suddenly and so boldly entered their country.
One fact was a great help to the Israelites in their plans for taking the
land of Canaan. The land was not held by one people, or ruled over by one king,
who could unite all his people against the Israelites. There were many small
nations living in the land, and each little tribe, and even each city, was
ruled by its own king. The Israelites, therefore, encountered each tribe and
city one by one and destroyed them with relative ease. However, a day came when
they had to face a united army of five cities, headed by Jerusalem. When Joshua
came suddenly upon the five armies, he did not give his enemies time to form in
line, but fell upon them so suddenly that they were driven into confusion, and
forced to flee before the men of Israel. And the Lord helped his people by a
storm which drove great stones of ice down on the Canaanites; so that more were
killed by the stones than by the sword.
And this day proved to be most important, for on that day the land was won
by the people of the Lord. If Israel had been defeated and destroyed, instead
of Canaan, then the Bible would never have been written, the worship of God
would have been blotted out, and the whole world would have worshipped idols.
The battle that day was for the salvation of the world as well as of Israel. So
this was the greatest battle, in its result, that the world has ever seen.
Then Joshua turned to the north, and led his army by a swift march against
the kings who had united there to fight the Israelites. As suddenly as before
he had fallen on the five armies near Jerusalem, he fell upon these kings and
their army. There another great victory was won; and after this it was easy to
conquer the land. Everywhere the tribes of Canaan were made to submit to the
Israelites, until all the mountain country was under Joshua’s rule.
Joshua then divided the land among the tribes. And the tribe of Ephraim was
one of the most fortunate for it received one of the best parts of all the
country, as the soil was rich and there were many springs and streams of water.
And here, near Mount Ebal, they buried the body of their tribe’s father,
Joseph, which they had kept in its container of stone, unburied, ever since
they left Egypt, more than forty years before. As Joshua himself belonged to
the tribe of Ephraim, his home was also in this land.
Now, although the land had been divided, it had not all been completely
conquered. Nearly all the Canaanite people were there, still living upon the
land, though in the mountain region they were under the rule of the Israelites.
But on the plain beside the Great Sea, on the west of the land were the
Philistines, a very strong people whom the Israelites had not yet met in war,
though the time was coming when they would meet them, and suffer from them.
And even among the mountains were many cities where the Canaanite people
still lived, and in some of these cities they were strong. Years afterward,
when Joshua the great warrior was no longer living, many of these people rose
up to trouble the Israelites. The time came when the tribes of Israel wished
often that their fathers had driven out or entirely destroyed the Canaanites,
before they ceased the war and divided the land.
But when Joshua divided the land, and sent the tribes to their new homes,
peace seemed to fall over all the country. And this land became known as "The
Land of Israel," or "The Land of the Twelve Tribes," for it was now their home.
注释
encounter[inˈkauntə]v. 遭遇
salvation[sælˈvei∫ən]n. 拯救
submit[səbˈmit]v. 服从
SAMSON AND DELILAH
Peace, however, was not to remain for long. After Joshua’s death, the
Ammonites, Moabites, and Midianites, all rose up against the Israelites at
different times. And it proved quite a struggle for the children of Israel to
maintain their hold on the land that was promised them by God.
Over the course of their struggles, which spanned hundreds of years, the
people again lost sight of God and began to worship idols; and as a punishment
God allowed more enemies to infiltrate their territory and make them subjects.
The worst of the foreign occupations, however, was that of the Philistines, for
it lasted the longest, and was the most widely spread of any, for it was over
all the tribes of Israel. The Philistines were a strong and warlike people, who
worshipped an idol called Dagon, which was made in the form of a fish’s head
on a man’s body. During their occupation of the land of Canaan, the
Philistines took from the Israelites all their weapons, so that they could not
fight; and they robbed their land of all the crops, so that the people suffered
for want of food. And as before, the Israelites in their trouble cried to the
Lord, and the Lord heard their prayers.
In the tribe land of Dan, which was next to the country of the Philistines,
there was living a man named Manoah. One day an angel came to his wife, and
said, "You shall have a son; and when he grows up he will begin to save Israel
from the hand of the Philistines. But your son must never drink any wine or
strong drink as long as he lives. And his hair must be allowed to grow long,
and must never be cut, for any people specifically called upon by God to
fulfill a promise are expected never to cut their hair as a symbol of this
promise."
The child was born, and was named Samson. He grew up to become the
strongest man of whom the Bible tells. When Samson became a young man, he went
down to Timnath, in the land of the Philistines. There he saw a young
Philistine woman whom he loved, and wished to have as his wife. As Samson was
going down to Timnath to see this young woman, a hungry young lion came out of
the mountain, growling angrily. Samson seized the lion, and tore him in pieces,
as easily as another man would have killed a little lamb; and then he went on
his way. He made his visit, and came home, but said nothing to anyone about the
lion.
After a time, Samson went again to Timnath for his marriage with the
Philistine woman. On his way he stopped to look at the dead lion; and in its
body he found bees and honey which they had made. He took some of the honey,
and ate it as he walked, but told no one of it.
At the wedding- dinner, which lasted a whole week, there were many
Philistine young men; and they amused each other with questions and riddles.
Samson was included in these games, and he, himself, offered up a riddle of his
own.
"If you can answer this riddle during the feast, I will give you thirty
suits of clothing. And if you cannot answer it, then you must give me thirty
suits of clothing."
The Philistine men eagerly took him up on the challenge.
"Out of the eater came forth meat. And out of the strong came forth
sweetness."
They could not find the answer, though they tried to find it all that day,
and the two days that followed. And at last they came to Samson’s wife, and
said to her, "Coax your husband to tell you the answer. If you do not find it
out, we will set your house on fire, and burn you and all your people."
And Samson’s wife urged him to tell her the answer. She cried and pleaded
with him, and said, "If you really love me, you would not keep this a secret
from me."
At last Samson yielded, and told his wife how he had killed the lion and
afterward found the honey in its body. She told her people, and just before the
end of the feast they came to Samson with the answer. They said, "What is
sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?"
Samson guessed the way in which they had discovered the answer, and in his
anger at them, he went out and killed the first thirty men whom he found, took
off their clothes, and gave them to the guests at the feast. He then left his
new wife and went home to his father’s house. Then the parents of his wife
gave her to another man.
But after a time Samson’s anger passed away, and he went again to Timnath
to see his wife. But her father said to him, "You went away angry, and I
supposed that you cared nothing for her. I gave her to another man, and now she
is his wife."
Samson went out very angry, determined to do harm to the Philistines,
because they had cheated him. He caught all the wild foxes that he could find,
until he had three hundred of them. Then he tied them together in pairs, by
their tails; and between each pair of foxes he tied to their tails a piece of
dry wood which he set on fire. These foxes he then turned loose among the
fields of the Philistines when the grain was ripe. They ran wildly over the
fields, set the grain on fire, and burned it, along with the olive-trees in the
fields.
When the Philistines saw their harvests destroyed, they decided Samson’s
father-in-law was the cause of their loss, for he had angered Samson; and they
came, and set his house on fire, and burned the man and his daughter whom
Samson had married. Then Samson came down again, and alone fought a company of
Philistines, and killed them all, as a punishment for killing his wife.
After this, Samson went to live in a hollow place in a split rock, called
the rock of Etam. The Philistines came up in a great army, and overran the
fields in the tribeland of Judah.
"Why do you come against us?" asked the men of Judah. "What do you want
from us?"
"We have come, "they said, "to capture Samson, and to deal with him as he
has dealt with our people."
The men of Judah then went to Samson, saying, "Do you not know that the
Philistines are ruling over us? Why do you make them angry by killing their
people? You see that we suffer through your deeds. Now we must capture you and
give you to the Philistines, or they will ruin us all."
And Samson said, "I will let you capture me, if you will promise not to
kill me yourselves; but only to give me safely into the hands of the
Philistines."
They made the promise; and Samson gave himself up to them, and allowed them
to chain his hands. The Philistines shouted for joy as they saw their enemy
brought to them in chains by his own people. Little did they know what was to
happen. For as soon as Samson came among them he burst the chains as though
they had been mere string; and picked up from the ground the jaw-bone of an
ass, and struck right and left with it as with a sword. He killed nearly a
thousand of the Philistines with this strange weapon.
After this, Samson went down to the chief city of the Philistines, which
was named Gaza. And there he fell in love with another Philistine woman,
Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines then came to Delilah, and said to her:
"Find out, if you can, what it is that makes Samson so strong; and tell us. If
you help us to get control of him, so that we can have him in our power, we
will make you wealthy."
And Delilah coaxed and pleaded with Samson to tell her what it was that
made him so strong. Samson said to her, "If they will tie me with seven green
twigs from a tree, then I shall not be strong any more."
Immediately, she gathered seven green twigs and bound Samson with them
while he was asleep. Then she called out to him, "Wake up, Samson, the
Philistines are coming against you!"
Samson rose up, alarmed, and broke the twigs as easily as if they had been
burned in the fire. And seeing that she had been deceived, Delilah became upset
with Samson. Once again she begged him to tell her his secret.
"Alright, then. Bind me with seven newly-made ropes, and I shall be as
helpless as a child."
Thus, Delilah, the following day, obtained seven new ropes and bound
Samson, once again, in his sleep. And, once again, she shouted, "Rise, Samson,
the Philistines are upon you!" And Samson rose up, startled, breaking free from
the ropes, as if they were a spider’s web.
This upset Delilah a great deal. And she made a show of her disappointment
with tears. Seeing this, Samson felt sorry for her, but still did not feel it
right to share his secret. He then told another lie: "Delilah, dear, I’m sorry
for having deceived you again. The secret lies in my hair. If you were to braid
my hair into your loom, surely my power would disappear."
And that night, Delilah pulled the thread of her loom over to where Samson
lay sleeping, and she braided his hair very tightly with the thread. And again,
she called out, "Wake Samson! The Philistines are coming!" Samson then jumped
up from his sleep and ran for the front door, and in doing so, pulled the
wooden beams from out of the loom, thus destroying the entire apparatus.
Now Delilah was truly alarmed; for the Philistine leaders were becoming
increasingly dissatisfied with her, and had threatened to destroy her home if
she could not this time find out the truth. And she said to Samson in a pitiful
voice: "As long as you keep your secrets, I can never believe that you really
love me."
This made Samson feel very guilty, for he trusted his wife, and believed
that he ought to prove his love for her by sharing his secret. Thus, he did
just that, revealing to her that his power lay in his promise to God, the sign
of which was keeping his hair long.
Delilah, seeing that she now clearly knew the truth, sent for the rulers of
the Philistines. When they came, she had them hide inside her home until Samson
fell asleep. Then, together, they took a razor and shaved off all his hair.
Then she called out as at other times, "Rise up, Samson; the Philistines are
upon you!" He awoke, and rose up, feeling that the Lord had left him. He was
now as weak as other men, and helpless in the hands of his enemies. The
Philistines easily made him their prisoner; and that he might never do them
more harm, they put out his eyes. Then they chained him, and sent him to prison
at Gaza. And there they made Samson turn a heavy millstone to grind grain, just
as though he were a beast of burden.
But while Samson was serving his time, his hair grew long again and with it
his strength, for Samson renewed his vow to the Lord.
One day a great feast was held by the Philistines in the temple of their
fish-god Dagon. For they said, "Our god has given Samson our enemy into our
hands. Let us be glad together and praise Dagon."
And the temple was thronged with people, and the roof over it was also
crowded with more than three thousand men and women. Samson was led into the
court of the temple, before all the people, to amuse them. After a time, he
said to the boy who was leading him: "Take me up to the front of the temple, so
that I may stand by one of the pillars, and lean against it."
And while Samson stood between two of the pillars, he prayed to the Lord
God of Israel, and said, "O Lord God, remember me, I pray you, and give me
strength only this once, O God; and help me, that I may obtain vengeance upon
the Philistines for my two eyes!"
Then he placed one arm around the pillar on one side, and the other arm
around the pillar on the other side; and he said, "And now, let me die with the
Philistines." And he bowed forward with all his might, and pulled the pillars
over with him, bringing down the roof upon those that were under it. Samson
himself was among the dead; but in his death he killed more of the Philistines
than he had killed during his lifetime.
The men of Samson’s tribe, having heard of this great triumph, came down
and found his dead body, and buried it in their own land. After that it was
years before the Philistines tried again to rule over the Israelites.
注释
maintain[meinˈtein]v. 维持; 保持
span[spæn]v. 横跨; 跨越
infiltrate[inˈfiltreit, ˈinfiltreit]v. 渗透
fulfil[fulˈfil]v. 完成
The Philistine men eagerly took him up on the challege. take up在此的意思
是"与…比高低/争论/挑战"。
例如: I’d like to take you up on that point. (我想就这一点同你辩论。)
plead[pliːd]v. 请求; 恳求
yield[jiːld]v. 屈服; 产生
These foxes he then turn loose. . . 这句话中loose是形容词做宾语补语。The foxes
是宾语前置(详见《一座美丽的花园的故事》后的"难点解释")。
hollow[ˈhɔləu]adj. ＆n. 空的; 洼陷
overrun[ˈəuvəˈrʌn]v. 蔓延; 蹂躏
mere[miə]adj. 仅仅
. . . what it was that made him so strong. 此句为强调句型(It was what that made
him so strong)
deceive[diˈsiːv]v. 欺骗
bind[baind]v. 绑; 缚
startle[ˈstαːtl]v. 使吃惊
web[web]n. 网
braid[breid]n. ＆v. 辫子; 扎辫子
loom[luːm]n. 织布机
apparatus[ˈæpəˈreitəs]n. 装置
threaten[ˈθretn]v. 威胁
reveal[riˈviːl]v. 泄露; 显露
. . . that he might never do them more harm, they put out his eyes. that引导的
目的状语从句可以置于主句之前。多数情况下, 主句在前, 从句在后: They put out his
eyes that he might never do them more harm.
millstone[ˈmilstəun]v. 磨盘
grind[ˈɡraind]v. 磨(粮食)
renew[riˈnjuː]v. 继续; 续(定/借)
vow[vau]n. ＆v. 誓言; 宣誓
lean[liːn]v. 倾斜
DAVID AND GOLIATH
For many years, the tribes of Israel were governed by a series of judges.
And through the years, the people of Israel and their judges struggled to keep
their country safe, not only from foreign invasion, but from the invasion of
false gods introduced by its own people.
The very last of the judges was Samuel. Samuel lived many years, and ruled
the people wisely, so that all trusted in him. He taught the Israelites to
worship the Lord God, and to put away the idols, which so many of them had
served. While Samuel ruled there was peace in all the tribes, and no enemies
came from the lands around to do harm to the Israelites. But the Philistines
were still very strong, and held rule over some parts of Israel near their own
land, although there was no war.
When Samuel grew old, he made his sons judges in order to help him in the
care of the people. But Samuel’s sons did not try always to do justly. When
men brought matters before them to be decided, they would decide for the one
who gave them money, and not always for the one who was in the right.
The elders of all the tribes of Israel came to Samuel at his home in Ramah,
and they said to him, "You are growing old, and your sons do not rule as well
as you have ruled. All the lands around us have kings. Let us also have a king,
and you choose the king for us."
Samuel tried to dissuade them from desiring a king, for it was God’s will
that Israel should be a quiet, plain people, living alone in the mountains,
serving the Lord and not trying to conquer other nations. But they wished to be
a great people, to be strong in war and to have riches and power. And the Lord
said to Samuel, "Do as the people ask, and choose a king for them." Then Samuel
sent the people back to their homes, promising to find a king for them.
One day, soon after, the Lord sent a tall and noblelooking fellow to
Samuel. His name was Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin. The lord then said to
Samuel, "This is the man who shall rule over my people."
Thus, Saul was soon made king. And at first he proved himself a good
choice. He did well to drive away the ever-troublesome Philistines; however, he
did not always prove himself wise in judgment. And on one occasion he did not
follow God’s commands exactly as directed. And for this, God deemed him unfit
as a ruler. However, God did not immediately remove him from power. He let him
know, through Samuel, of his great dissatisfaction, and informed him that he
would be replaced as soon as a better man could be found among the people.
Thus, for many years after, he remained king of the land of Israel.
In the meantime, God ordered Samuel to take with him a cow and visit the
town of Bethlehem, for there resided a family among whose sons he had found a
new king. And so Samuel went over the mountains southward to Bethlehem. There
he hosted a great feast, inviting many families, including that of Jesse, whose
family God had mentioned.
During the feast, Samuel looked over the sons of Jesse very closely. The
oldest was so tall and noble-looking that Samuel thought he must be the chosen
one. However, it was not he, after all, but the youngest of the seven brothers:
a little shepherd boy, named David. Samuel, upon finding the boy, poured oil on
David’s head in the presence of all his brothers. But no one knew at that time
the meaning of this. From that time, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David,
and he soon began to show signs of coming greatness. He went back to his sheep
on the hillsides around Bethlehem, but God was with him. David grew up strong
and brave; not afraid of the wild beasts which circled around his flocks,
hunting for food. More than once he fought with beasts, and killed them. All
day, David would practice throwing stones with a sling, until he could strike
exactly the place at which he aimed.
And, young as he was, David thought of God, and prayed to God. And God
talked with David, and showed to David his will. And David was more than a
shepherd and a fighter of wild beasts. He played upon the harp, and made music,
and sang songs about the goodness of God to his people. He became so talented
as a musician that he was even asked to perform for the king at times.
But while the Spirit of God came to David, that same Spirit left King Saul,
because he no longer obeyed God’s words. Then Saul became very unhappy. There
were times when he seemed to lose his mind, because he was no more at peace
with God.
And all through the reign of Saul there was constant war with the
Philistines. At one time, when David was still with his sheep, a few years
after he had been anointed by Samuel, the camp of the Philistines and the
Israelites were set against each other on opposite sides of the valley of Elah,
ready to fight each other. In the army of Israel were the three oldest brothers
of David, who were soldiers under King Saul.
Every day a giant came out of the camp of the Philistines, and dared
someone to come from the Israelites’ camp and fight with him. The giant’s
name was Goliath. He was nine feet tall; and he wore armor from head to foot,
and carried a spear twice as long and as heavy as any other man could hold; and
his shield-bearer walked before him. He came every day and called out across
the little valley: "Choose one of your men, and let him come out and fight with
me. If I kill him, then you shall submit to us; and if he kills me, then we
will give up to you. Come, now, send out your man!"
But no man in the army, not even King Saul, dared to go out and fight with
the giant. Forty days the camps stood against each other, and the Philistine
giant continued his daily call.
One day, old Jesse sent David from Bethlehem to visit his three brothers in
the army. David came, spoke to his brothers, and gave them a present from his
father. While he was talking with them, Goliath, the giant, came out as before
in front of the camp, calling for someone to fight with him.
And David said, "Who is this man that speaks in this proud manner against
the armies of the living God? Why does not someone go out and kill him?"
And seeing that all the Israelites were in terror, this boy thought of a
plan. Finally, he said: "If no one else will go, I shall fight with this enemy
of the Lord’s people."
They brought David before King Saul, who said to him, "You cannot fight
with this giant. You are very young; and he is a man of war, trained from his
youth."
And David replied, "I am young, but I have fought with lions and bears when
they have tried to steal my sheep. And I am not afraid to fight with this
Philistine. The Lord saved me from the beasts, and he will save me from this
enemy."
Then Saul offered his own armor to David, but David refused it, saying, "I
am not used to fighting with such weapons as these. Let me fight in my own
way." For David’s plan did not require armor, but rather a quick eye, a clear
head, a sure aim, and a bold heart; and all these David had.
This plan was very wise. It consisted of making Goliath think that his
enemy was too weak for him to be on his guard against him; and while so far
away that the giant could not reach him with sword or spear, to strike him down
with a weapon which the giant would not expect, and would not be prepared for.
David took his shepherd’s staff in his hand, as though that were to be his
weapon. But out of sight, in a bag under his mantle, he had five smooth stones
carefully chosen, and a sling—the weapon he knew how to use best. Then he came
out to meet the Philistine. The giant looked down on the youth and laughed at
him.
"Am I a dog," he said, "that this boy comes to me with a staff? I will give
his body to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field." And the
Philistine cursed David by the god of his people. And David answered him: "You
come against me with a sword and a spear; but I come to you in the name of the
God of the armies of Israel. This day will the Lord give you into my hand; I
will strike you down, and take off your head; and the host of the Philistines
shall be dead bodies, to be eaten by the birds and the beasts; so that all may
know that there is a God in Israel, and that he can save in other ways besides
with sword and spear."
And David ran toward the Philistine, as if to fight him with his
shepherd’s staff. But when he was near enough for a good aim he took out his
sling, and cast a stone aimed at the giant’s forehead. David’s aim was good,
the stone struck the Philistine exactly where he had desired. It surprised the
giant, and he fell to the ground. While the two armies stood amazed, scarcely
knowing what had caused the giant to fall so suddenly, David ran forward, drew
out the giant’s own sword, and cut off his head.
Then the Philistines knew that their great warrior, in whom they had
trusted, was dead. They turned to fly back to their own land; and the
Israelites followed after them, and killed them by the hundreds and thousands,
even to the gates of their own city of Gath.
So in that day David won a great victory; and stood before all the land as
the one who had saved his people from their enemies.
注释
series[ˈsiəri: z]n. 系列
invasion[inˈveiʒən]n. 入侵; 闯入
dissuade[diˈsweid]v. 劝说…(不要…)
judgement[ˈdʒʌdʒmənt]n. 判断
deem[diːm]v. 认为
meantime[ˈmiːnˈtaim]n. 同时
reside[riˈzaid]v. 居住
upon finding on/upon后接名词或动名词, 做时间状语, 表示"一…就"
例如: On his arrival he came to me immediately.
Upon losing his wallet, he reported the case to the police.
young as he was as用于部分倒装句中, 引导让步状语从句(详见《拯救了八个人的大船》
后的"难点解释")。
reign[rein]n. 统治
anoint[əˈnɔint]v. (宗教仪式)涂油于
armor[ˈαːmə]n. 盔甲
shield[∫iːld]n. 盾牌
If no one else will go. will用于条件状语从句, 表示主语的意愿(详见故事《燃烧的灌
木丛发出的声音》后的"难点解释")。
mantle[ˈmæntl]n. 斗篷; 罩子
. . . cursed David by the god of his people. by在此表示"以…的名义"(in the name
of)。例如: I swear by Almighty God(我谨以上帝的名义起誓。)
This day will the lord give you into my hand. This day在此做状语, 引导部分倒装
句。例如: Only in this way will you win.
DAVID BECOMES KING
After David’s great victory over the Philistines, he was appointed an
officer in Saul’s army. And he was greeted in every town he passed through by
crowds of people shouting: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten
thousands." This made Saul very angry, for he was jealous and suspicious in
spirit. He thought constantly of Samuel’s words, that God would take the
kingdom from him and would give it to one who was more worthy of it. He began
to think that perhaps this young man, who had come in a single day to greatness
before the people, might try to make himself king.
Meanwhile, David flourished in his position as officer, and he gathered
around him quite a following of soldiers, full of admiration and devotion.
This, too, however, made Saul jealous and eventually drove him to make a number
of attempts on David’s life. David, who was with God, however, always managed
to avoid harm. But this did not prevent him from eventually being driven from
his hometown. And for years, he and his army of followers lived on the border
of Philistine territory.
But even in David’s absence, Saul’s jealousy failed to subside. He sent
armies of men out to hunt and destroy David, but each time they were avoided.
On two occasions Saul personally accompanied his armies in their hunt. And each
time, David managed to infiltrate the guard and confront the king personally in
his private quarters. But he always spared Saul’s life, asking the king simply
to cease hunting him down, for he wished no illwill upon a king chosen by God.
In the end, Saul’s jealousy proved too strong to overcome, and it seemed
as though David would only become king as a very old man. However, the end of
Saul did finally come, when his army was defeated in battle with the
Philistines, and rather than die by the sword of the enemy, he chose to take
his own life.
And it was in this way that David finally gained the crown, as was God’s
will.
注释
appoint[əˈpɔint]v. 任命
suspicious[səsˈpi∫əs]adj. 可疑的
flourish[ˈflʌri∫]v. 繁荣
jealousy[ˈdʒeləsi]n. 妒忌
accompany[əˈkʌmpəni]v. 陪伴
confront[kənˈfrʌnt]v. 面对; 对峙
crown[kraun]n. 王冠
THE NEW TESTAMENT
THE ANGEL BY THE ALTAR
At the time when the story of the New Testament begins, the land of Israel,
called also the land of Judea, was ruled by a king named Herod. He was the
first of several Herods, who at different times ruled either the whole of the
land or parts of it. But Herod was not the highest ruler. Many years before
this time, the Romans had won all the land around the Great Sea, the sea which
we now call the Mediterranean; and above King Herod of Judea was the great
Emperor at Rome, ruling over all the lands, including the land of Judea. At the
time when this story begins, the emperor at Rome was named Augustus Caesar.
One day, an old priest named Zacharias was leading the service of worship
in the court of the Temple, when suddenly, as he was retrieving the incense
from an inside altar, he saw an angel from the Lord standing before him. He
felt a great fear when he saw this strange being with shining face; but the
angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zacharias; I am Gabriel, and I have come
from the Lord to bring you good news. Your wife Elizabeth shall have a son, and
you shall name him John. And he shall lead many of the people of Israel to the
Lord."
As Zacharias heard these words, he was filled with wonder, and could hardly
believe them true. He said to the angel: "But I am an old man and my wife is
old. How can we be expected to have a child?"
"I am Gabriel," said the angel, "and I was sent from the Lord to speak to
you. But because you did not believe my words you shall become dumb, and shall
not be able to speak until this which I have said comes to pass."
About six months after Zacharias saw the vision in the Temple, the same
angel Gabriel was sent from the Lord to a city in the part of the land called
Galilee, which was in the north. The city to which the angel was sent was
Nazareth. There the angel found a young girl named Mary. Mary was soon to be
married to a good man who had sprung from the line of King David, though he was
not himself a king, or a rich man. He was a carpenter living in Nazareth, and
his name was Joseph. The angel came into the room where Mary was, and said to
her: "Be not afraid! The Lord has chosen you to be the mother of a son whose
name shall be Jesus, which means ‘salvation,’ because he shall save his
people from their sins. He shall be great; and shall be called the Son of God.
He shall be a king; and shall reign over the people of God forever, and of his
kingdom there shall be no end."
And when Mary heard all this she said, "I am the servant of the Lord. Let
it be to me as you have said."
And not long after, Zacharias and his wife were given a son, and they named
him John. Then all at once the power to hear and to speak came back to
Zacharias. When John was growing up, they sent him out into the desert on the
south of the land, and there he stayed until the time came for him to preach to
the people, for this child became the prophet John the Baptist.
THE MANGER OF BETHLEHEM
Soon after the time when John the Baptist was born, Joseph, the carpenter
of Nazareth, the fiancé of Mary, had a dream. In his dream he saw an angel from
the Lord standing beside him. The angel said to him: "Mary, the young woman
whom you are to marry, will have a son sent by the Lord God. You shall call him
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."
Soon, after Joseph and Mary were married in Nazareth, a command went forth
from the emperor, Augustus Caesar, through all the lands of the Roman empire,
for all the people to go to the cities and towns from which their families had
come and there to have their names written down upon a list, for the emperor
wished a list to be made of the people under his rule. As both Joseph and Mary
had come from the family of David the king, they went together from Nazareth to
Bethlehem.
It was a long journey, and when they finally arrived, there was no room
available for them in the inn. The best that they could do was to go to a barn,
or stable, and rest among the barn animals. There the little baby was born, and
was laid in a manger, where the cattle were fed.
When the little one was eight days old, they named him Jesus, as the angel
had told both Mary and Joseph that he should be named. So the very name of this
child told what he should do for men; for he was to bring salvation to the
world.
And for some time after Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary stayed with him in
Bethlehem. The little baby was not kept long in the stable, sleeping in the
manger; for after a few days they found room in a house; and there a visit was
made to Jesus by strange men from a land far away.
In a country east of Judea, and many miles distant, were living some very
wise men who studied the stars. One night they saw a strange star shining in
the sky, and knew it to be a sign from God that the new king of Judea had been
born. These men felt a call to go and visit this new born king. And so they
took the long journey west, and upon arriving, asked people: "Where is he that
is born the King of the Jews? In the east we have seen his star, and we have
come to worship him."
But no one of whom they asked had ever seen this king or had heard of him.
The news of their coming was sent to king Herod, who was now a very old man.
When he heard of someone born to be a king, he made up his mind to have this
new king killed, for it was foretold in the later chapters of the Old Testament
that God would one day send down a king of his own choosing.
Meanwhile, the three wise men followed the star until it led them to the
very house where the little child was. They came in, and there they saw the
little one with Mary, his mother. They knew at once that this was the King, and
they fell down on their faces and worshipped him as the Lord. Then they brought
out gifts of gold and precious perfumes, frankincense and myrrh, which were
used in offering sacrifices.
After the wise men went away, the Lord sent another dream to Joseph, the
husband of Mary. In this dream an angel spoke to him, saying: "Rise up quickly;
take the little child and his mother, and go down to the land of Egypt, for
Herod will try to find and kill him."
Then, at once, Joseph rose up in the night, without waiting even for the
morning. He took his wife and her baby, and quietly and quickly took them down
to Egypt. There they stayed in safety as long as the wicked King Herod lived.
King Herod soon sent out his soldiers to Bethlehem. They came, and by the
cruel king’s command they seized all the male children in Bethlehem who were
three years old or younger, and killed them all. But Jesus, whom they were
seeking, was safe in the land of Egypt.
Not long after, King Herod died, and the angel of the Lord came again and
spoke to Joseph in a dream, saying: "You may now take the young child back to
his own land, for the king who sought to kill him is dead."
Then Joseph took his wife and the little child Jesus to Nazareth, his
hometown and that of Mary’s as well. Nazareth was ruled by a son of King
Herod, named Herod Antipas. He was not a good man, but was not so cruel nor
bloody as his wicked father had been.
So again Joseph, the carpenter, and Mary his wife, were living in Nazareth.
And there they stayed for many years while Jesus was growing up among his
brothers and sisters, all born after him.
注释
manger[ˈmeindʒə]n. 马槽
available[əˈveiləbl]adj. 现有的; 准备好了的
barn[bαːn]n. 谷仓; 牲口棚
stable[ˈsteibl]n. 马厩
In a country east of Judea were living some very wise men…复合谓语出现在完全倒
装句中(详见故事《古以色列人的长途跋涉结束》后的"难点解释")。
. . . felt a call. . . 感知(神的)号召
frankincense[ˈfræŋkinˈsens]n. 乳香
myrrh[məː]n. 末药
THE PROPHET IN THE WILDERNESS
Jesus lived in Nazareth until he was thirty years of age. We should like to
know many things about his boyhood, but, unfortunately, the Bible tells us very
little. We know that he grew up in a modest household, and that he followed in
his father’s footsteps and became a carpenter.
At the time of Jesus’s thirtieth year, there suddenly came news through
all the land of Israel that a prophet had risen up in the deserts of southern
Judea and was giving to the people the work of the Lord. From all parts of the
land, people poured forth to the wild region beside the river Jordan to hear
what the Lord had to say.
This prophet was John, the son of Zacharias. He lived in the wilderness,
where he was alone with God and listened to God’s voice. And the message he
had to share with those who came to see him was: "Turn from sin and do right,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the King is soon to come."
Those who came to hear John speak were also baptized by him in the river
Jordan as a sign that their sins were washed away. And because of this he was
called "John the Baptist."
Some of the people began to ask, "Is not this man the Christ whom God
promised long ago to send to rule over the people?"
John heard this, and he said, "I baptize you with water, but there is one
coming after me who is greater than I. He shall baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with fire. He is so high above me that I am not worthy even to untie
the strings of his shoes. This mighty one who is coming shall sift out the
wheat from the chaff among the people. The wheat he will gather, but the chaff
he will burn up with fire that no man can put out."
Nearly all the people in the land came to hear John in the wilderness, and
were baptized by him. Among the last who came was Jesus, the young carpenter
from Nazareth. When John saw Jesus, something within told him that here was one
greater and holier than himself. He baptized Jesus, as he had baptized others,
and as Jesus came up out of the water and prayed, John saw above the head of
Jesus the heavens open, and the Holy Spirit come down like a dove and light
upon him. And John heard from heaven a voice saying: "This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased."
And then John knew and told to others that this was the Son of God, the
Christ whom God had promised to send to the people.
注释
household[ˈhaushəuld]n. 一家人
carpenter[ˈkαːpintə]n. 木匠
baptize[bæpˈtaiz]v. 使…受洗
untie[ˈʌnˈtai]v. 解开
chaff[t∫αːf]n. 谷壳
beloved[biˈlʌvd, biˈlʌvid]adj. 亲爱的
JESUS IN THE DESERT AND BESIDE THE RIVER
Thus in that hour of his baptism, Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit as
no man before him had been filled, for he was the son of God. And he now knew,
more fully than he had ever known before, the work that he should do to save
men.
The Spirit of God sent Jesus into the desert, there to be for a time alone
with God and to plan out his work for men. While there, so earnest was the
thought of Jesus, so full was his union with God, that for forty days he never
once ate anything, or felt any wish for food. But when the forty days were
ended, and suddenly hunger came upon him, Satan, the evil spirit, came to Jesus
and put a thought into his mind. It was this thought: "If you are the Son of
God, you can do whatever you please, and can have whatever you wish. Why do you
not command that these stones be turned into loaves of bread for you to eat?"
Jesus knew that he could do this, but he knew also that this power had been
given to him, not for himself, but that he might help others. He said to the
evil spirit, "It is written in God’s book, ‘Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’"
Then the evil spirit led Jesus to Jerusalem, the holy city, and brought him
to the top of a high tower on the Temple, and said to him, "now show all the
people that you are the Son of God by throwing yourself down to the ground.
For, according to the old Testament, the angels of God shall hold you up."
But Jesus knew that this would not be right, for it would be done not to
please God, but to show himself before men and as a trial of God’s power, when
God himself had not commanded it. He answered, "It is written again, ‘You
shall not tempt the Lord your God.’"
Again the evil spirit tried to lead Jesus into doing wrong. He led him to
the top of a high mountain, and caused a vision of all the kingdoms of the
world and their glory to stand before the eyes of Jesus. Then he said, "All
these shall be yours; you shall be the king of all the earth if you will only
fall down and worship me."
Then Jesus said to him, "Leave me, Satan, evil spirit! For it is written,
‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’"
When Satan found that Jesus would not listen to him, he left him; and then
the angels of God came to Jesus in the desert and gave to him the food that he
needed.
After this victory over the evil spirit, Jesus went again from the desert
to the place at the river Jordan where he had been baptized. There, John the
Baptist was standing with two young men, his followers. They were fishermen who
had come from the sea of Galilee to hear him. One was named Andrew, and the
other John. John the Baptist saw Jesus walking nearby, and he said, "Look! It
is the Lamb of God!" When the two young men heard this, they escorted Jesus to
where he was staying, and visited and talked with him, and listened to his
words all the rest of that day, for it was morning when they first saw Jesus.
And these two young men went away from the meeting with Jesus, believing that
Jesus was the Saviour and the King of Israel. These two, Andrew and John, were
the first two men, after John the Baptist, to believe in Jesus.
Each of these two men had a brother whom he wished might know Jesus.
Andrew’s brother was named Simon, and John’s brother was named James. These
four men were all fishermen together upon the sea of Galilee. Andrew found his
brother first and he said to him, "We have found the Anointed One, the Christ
who is to be the King of Israel."
And Andrew brought his brother to meet Jesus. Jesus saw him coming, and
without waiting to hear his name, he said, "Your name is Simon the rock, or
Simon Peter." So now Jesus had three followers, Andrew, John and Simon Peter.
The next day, Jesus was going back to Galilee, the part of the land where
his home was, and he met two other men, Philip and Nathanael. And these two
also chose to go with him. And so Jesus had now five followers. These men and
others who walked with him, and listened to his words, were called "disciples,"
a word which means "learners."
注释
baptism[ˈbæptizəm]n. 洗礼
earnest[ˈəːnist]adj. 热切的
tempt[tempt]v. 引诱; 试探
escort[isˈkɔːt]v. 护送
disciple[diˈsaipl]n. 门徒
JESUS’S FIRST MIRACLE
A few days after Jesus met his first disciples at the river Jordan, he came
with these men to a town in Galilee called Cana, to be present at a wedding.
At this wedding, before the wedding feast was over, all the wine was found
to have run out. Jesus then told the servants, "Fill the water-jars in the
dining hall with water." The servants obeyed and filled the jars up to the top.
Then Jesus said, "Now draw out some of the water and take it to the head of the
feast." They drew out water from the jars, and saw that it had been turned into
wine.
This was the first time that Jesus used the power that God had given him to
do what no other man could do. Such works as these were called "miracles," and
Jesus did them as signs of his power as the Son of God. When the disciples saw
this miracle, they believed in Jesus more fully than before.
After this, Jesus went to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Passover. When
he arrived, he found in the courts of the Temple men who were selling oxen and
sheep and birds for the sacrifices, and other men sitting at tables changing
the money of Jews who came from other lands into the money of Judea. All this
made the courts around the Temple seem like a market, and not a place for the
worship of God.
Jesus picked up some cord, and made from it a little whip. With it he began
to drive out of the Temple all the merchants. He was but one, and they were
many; but such power was in his look that they ran before him. He drove away
the men and the animals; he overturned the tables, and threw the money on the
floor.
These acts of Jesus were not pleasing to the rulers of the Jews, for many
of them were getting rich by this selling of sacrifices and changing of money.
Some of the rulers came to Jesus, and said to him, "What right have you to come
here and do such things as these? What sign can you show that God has given to
you power to rule in this place?"
Jesus said to them, "I will give you a sign. Destroy this house of God, and
in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple on
Mount Moriah, and it is not yet finished. Will you raise it up in three days?"
But Jesus did not mean the Temple on Mount Moriah. And it would not be until
after Jesus’s death that his disciples would understand these words.
While Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem and in the country places near it,
John the Baptist was still preaching and baptizing in the wilderness. However,
he was soon placed in prison by Herod Antipas, the king of Galilee; for John
had spoken out against the king, who had recently taken as his wife a married
woman, named Herodias. These words of John made Herodias very angry, and she
demanded that John be killed. Herod did not hate John as much as his wife, and,
therefore, instead of having him killed, he sent him to a prison near the Dead
Sea.
Jesus, at the time, knew nothing of this, and was beginning to travel
further, spreading his teachings as much about the land as he could. When he,
once again, passed through Galilee, the area in which he had turned water into
wine, the news that he had come back from Jerusalem went through all that part
of the land, and everybody wished to see the prophet who had wrought such
wonders.
Jesus first went to Nazareth, his hometown; and, as on the Sabbath days he
had always worshipped in the synagogue, he went to that place once more. He was
no longer the carpenter, but the teacher, the prophet, of whom all in the land
were talking, and the synagogue was filled with people eager to hear him, and,
especially, hoping to see him perform wonderful miracles. Seated on the floor
before him were men who had known him since he was a little boy, and perhaps
some of his own sisters were looking down from the gallery behind the lattice
screen.
When Jesus spoke, however, the crowd became very impatient, for they wished
to see a miracle performed as he had done in other places. They shouted to him,
demanding a miracle. And Jesus quoted passages from the Old Testament where it
was shown that miracles were never done for show.
All this made the people in the synagogue very angry. They would not listen
to him, but leaped up from their seats upon the floor, and laid hold of Jesus,
and dragged him out doors. They then took him up to the top of the hill above
the city, and they would have thrown him down to his death, but Jesus, by the
power of God, slipped quietly out of their hands and went away, for the time
for him to die had not yet come.
注释
miracle[ˈmirəkl]n. 奇迹
. . . he found in the courts of the Temple men who were selling oxen and sheep
and birds for the sacrifices, and other men sitting at tables changing the
money
of Jews who came from other lands into the money of Judea. 本句中的第一个men是
宾语, in the courts of the Temple是前置的地点状语; 第二个men是found的另一个并列
的宾语, sitting at tables是现在分词做men的后置定语, 而changing是现在分词做宾语
补语。
All this made the courts around the Temple seem like a market. around在这儿不是
指圣殿"周围", 而是指殿内的"各处"。例如: Mom works around the house. (母亲理
家。)
whip[(h)wip]n. 鞭子
overturn[ˈəuvəˈtəːn]n. 推翻
preach[priːt∫]v. 宣讲
wring a wonder创造奇迹
synagogue[ˈsinəɡɔɡ]n. 犹太教堂
lattice[ˈlætis]n. 格子
impatient[imˈpei∫ənt]adj. 不耐烦的
. . . they would have thrown him down to his death. (险些把他推下山去摔死。)本
句是虚拟式, 是对过去情况的假定。言外之意, 人们还没有来得及推他, 他就逃脱了。
A NET FULL OF FISHES
While Jesus was teaching in Galilee, Andrew, John, and Simon Peter went
again to their homes and their work, for they were fishermen from the Sea of
Galilee. One morning, soon after Jesus came to Capernaum, he went out of the
city, by the sea, followed by a great throng of people, who had come together
to see him and to hear him. On the shore were lying two fishing boats, one of
which belonged to Simon and Andrew, the other to John and his brother James.
The men themselves were not in the boats, but were washing their nets nearby.
Jesus stepped into the boat that belonged to Simon Peter and his brother
Andrew, and asked them to push it out a little into the sea so that he could
talk to the people from it without being crowded too closely. They pushed it
out; and then Jesus sat in the boat, and spoke to the people as they stood upon
the beach. After he had finished speaking to the people, and had sent them
away, he said to Simon Peter: "Put your boat out into the deep water, and let
down your nets to catch some fish." "Master," said Simon, "we have been fishing
all night, and have caught nothing; but if it is your will, I will let down the
net again."
They did as Jesus asked them; and now the net caught so many fish, that
Simon and Andrew could not pull it up, and it was in danger of breaking. They
made signs to the two brothers, James and John, who were in the other boat, for
them to come and help them. They came, and lifted the net, and poured out the
fish. There were so many of them that both the boats were filled, and began to
sink.
When Simon Peter saw this, he was struck with wonder, and felt that it was
by the power of God. He fell down at the feet of Jesus, saying, "O Lord, I am
full of sin, and am not worthy of all this! Leave me, O Lord."
But Jesus said to Simon, and to the others, "Fear not; but follow me, and I
will make you from this time fishers of men."
From that day these four men, Simon and Andrew, James, who was now new
among the disciples, and John, gave up their nets and their work, and walked
with Jesus as his disciples.
THE TWELVE DISCIPLES AND THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Among the Jews there was one class of men hated and despised by the people
more than any other: "the publicans." These were the men who collected from the
people the tax which the Roman rulers had laid upon the land. Many of these
publicans were selfish, grasping, and cruel. They robbed the people, taking
more than was right. Some of them were honest men, but because so many were
wicked, all the publicans were hated alike.
One day, when Jesus was going out to the seaside, followed again by a great
crowd of people, he passed a tax-gatherer, who was seated at his table taking
money from the people who came to pay their taxes. This man was named Matthew,
or Levi, for many Jews had two names. Jesus could look into the hearts of men,
and he saw that Matthew was one who might help him as one of his disciples. He
looked upon Matthew, and said, "Follow me!"
At once, the publican rose up from his table, and left it to go with Jesus.
All the people wondered as they saw one of the hated publicans among the
disciples, with Peter, and John, and the rest. But Jesus knew that Matthew
would long afterward write a book that would bless the world forever. It was
this same Matthew, the publican, who many years after this wrote "The Gospel
according to Matthew," the book which tells us so much about Jesus, and more
than any other book gives us the words that Jesus spoke to the people. Jesus
chose Matthew, knowing that he would write this book.
On another occasion, Jesus went alone to the top of a mountain in Galilee,
where he could be alone and pray to God. The next morning, Jesus chose, among
his crowd of followers, twelve men who should walk with him and listen to his
words, so that they might be able to teach others in turn. Some of these men he
had called before; but now he called them again, and others with them. They
were called the "Twelve Disciples." After Jesus went to heaven, they were
called the "Apostles," a word which means "those who were sent out," because
Jesus sent them out to preach the gospel to the world.
The names of the twelve disciples, or apostles, were these: Simon Peter,
and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Nathanael; Thomas and
Matthew; another James, who was called "James the Less," to keep his name apart
from the first James, the brother of John; Judas, but not to be confused with
the other "Judas," who would ultimately become a traitor. The eleventh name was
another Simon, who was called, "Simon Zelotes;" and the last name was Judas
Iscariot, the man who would betray Jesus.
In front of all the people who had come to hear him, Jesus called these
twelve men to stand by his side. Then, on the mountain, he preached to these
disciples and to the great company of people. What he said on that day is
called "The Sermon on the Mount." Jesus began with these words to his
disciples:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for
they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are punished for doing right: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and punish you for my sake.
Rejoice, and be glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you. You are the light of the world. And
men light a candle not to put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick where it
may shine on all in its presence."
And it was here that he said to the people: "Ask, and it shall be given
you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For
everyone that asks receives: and he that seeks finds: and to him that knocks it
shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asks bread, will
he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent?"
"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that
ask him! Therefore do to others as you would have them do to you: for this is
the Law and the Prophets."
And he ended the sermon saying: Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of
mine, and follows them, will be as a wise man who has built his house upon a
rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house: and it fell not. And everyone that hears my words, but does
not follow them, shall be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the
sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
注释
despise[disˈpaiz]v. 嫌恶; 厌弃
publican[ˈpʌblikən]n. 税务官
alike[əˈlaik]adj. 相似的
apostle[əˈpɔsl]n. 使徒
confuse[kənˈfjuːz]v. 弄混
ultimate[ˈʌltimit]adj. 最终的
traitor[ˈtreitə]n. 卖国贼; 叛徒
betray[biˈtrei]v. 出卖; 背叛
inherit[inˈherit]v. 继承
righteousness[ˈrait∫əsnis]n. 正义
sake[seik]n. 缘故
rejoice[riˈdʒɔis]v. 欢呼; 兴高采烈
persecute[ˈpəːsikjuːt]v. 迫害
serpent[ˈsəːpənt]n. 蛇
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them
that ask him! 本句的句法结构是这样的:
a. your Father which is in heaven: 主语
b. shall give: 谓语
c. how much more good: 定语, 修饰things
d. that ask him: 定语从句, 修饰them
descend[diˈsend]v. 降下
. . . great was the fall of it形容词起首的完全倒装句。例如:
Very lively are the children in various national costumes. (十分活泼的一群是身
着各种民族服装的孩子们。)
THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
Jesus stayed in Galilee for a year, and nearly all that time John the
Baptist was alone in his prison near the Dead Sea. His followers, who were now
very few, came to see him, and told him of the works that Jesus was doing.
These were wonderful, but they were not what John had expected Jesus to do; and
in his prison, with no one to explain what Jesus was saying and doing, John
began to doubt a little whether Jesus was the Saviour who had been promised so
long. Thus, John sent two of his followers to Jesus, to ask him this question,
"Are you really the Saviour who is to come, or are we to look for some other as
the promised Christ?"
When these men came with this message from John the Baptist, they found
Jesus in the midst of a great company of suffering people. They saw him making
the sick well by his touch, giving sight to the blind, and casting out the evil
spirits; and they listened to the words of Jesus as he taught the people.
When his work for the time was done, Jesus turned to the men who had come
from John, and said to them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard,
how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised to life, and the poor have good news preached to them. And
blessed is that man who believes in me without doubting."
Not long after this, the end came to the noble life of John the Baptist. A
great feast was held on King Herod’s birthday, and all the princes and nobles
of his kingdom were in the palace, eating and drinking together. While they
were making merry, the young daughter of Herodias, Herod’s wife, came into the
dining room and danced before the guests. Herod was so greatly pleased with her
dancing that he said to her, "Ask whatever you please, and I will give it to
you."
The girl went to her mother, and said to her, "Tell me, what shall I ask?"
Her mother whispered something in her ear, and she came back with haste to
the king, and said, "I ask that you give me, here upon a plate, the head of
John the Baptist!"
The king was very sorry that he had made the promise, but he was ashamed to
break his word in the presence of his princes. He sent a man to the prison with
orders that the head of John the Baptist should be cut off and brought. It was
done; and the young girl took it upon a plate, and gave it to her mother.
The followers of John the Baptist went to the prison, and took away his
body and buried it; and then they went and told Jesus of all that had been
done. After this, they walked among the followers of Jesus.
Herod the king heard of what Jesus was doing: the sick healed, the blind
made to see, and the dead raised to life. Everybody by this time was talking of
Jesus and wondering who he was. Some believed him to be a prophet. But Herod
said, "I know who this is. It is John the Baptist, whom I killed! He has come
back to life, and by him all these great works are wrought!" And Herod was in
great alarm, for he was afraid of the man whom he had slain.
注释
midst[ˈmidst]n. 中间
leper[ˈlepə]n. 麻风病; 麻风病人
prince[prins]n. 王子; 亲王
haste[heist]n. 急忙
heal[hiːl]v. 治愈
THE FEAST BESIDE THE SEA, AND WHAT FOLLOWED IT
The multitudes seeking after Jesus were now greater than ever before, for
it was near the time of the Passover, and very many on their way to Jerusalem
turned aside to see and to hear the great Teacher. So many people were coming
and going that Jesus and his disciples could scarcely find time even to eat.
Jesus then said to the twelve: "Come with me to a quiet place, away from the
crowds, and let us rest for a time."
They climbed into a boat and rowed across a lake to an open place, where no
one lived, not far from the city of Bethsaida. But they could not be alone, for
the people saw them going, and watched them from the shore, and went on foot
around the northern end of the lake, and found them. When Jesus saw how eager
the crowds were to hear him, he took pity on them and taught them, and healed
such among them as were sick.
As it began to grow toward evening, the disciples said to Jesus, "This is a
lonely place, and there is nothing here for such a crowd of people to eat. Send
them away before it is too late, and tell them to go to the towns and get
food."
But Jesus said to them, "They need not go away. You can give them food to
eat."
They said to him, "Shall we go into the town and buy two hundred
shillings’ worth of bread, so that each one of them may have a little?"
Jesus turned to one of his disciples and, as a test, asked, "Where shall we
find bread, that all these may eat?"
The disciple responded, "There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley
bread and two little fishes; but what use would they be among so many people?"
Jesus then told them, "Go out among the people, and divide them into
companies of fifty and a hundred, and tell them to sit down in order."
So the people all sat down; and upon the green grass, arranged in rows and
squares in their garments of different colors, they looked like beds of
flowers.
Then Jesus took into his hands the five loaves and the two fishes which the
boy had brought. He looked up to heaven, and blessed the food; and broke the
loaves and the dried fishes, and gave the pieces to the disciples. They went
among the companies of people, and gave to everyone bread and fish, as much as
each needed. So they all ate, and had enough.
Then Jesus said, "Gather up the pieces of food that are left, so that
nothing may be lost."
Each of the disciples carried a basket among the people, and when they came
to Jesus all the twelve baskets were filled with pieces that were left over of
the five loaves and the two fishes.
When the people saw that here was one who could give them food, they were
ready at once to make Jesus their king, and to break away from the rule of the
Romans. Jesus was a King, but he would not be such as king as they wished. His
kingdom was to be in the hearts of men who loved him, not a kingdom set up by
the swords of soldiers. He found that his disciples were ready to help the
people to make him a king, even against his own will.
So Jesus first compelled his disciples to go on board the boat, though they
were not willing to do so, and to row across the lake to the town of Capernaum.
Then he sent away the great crowd of people who were still eager that he should
be their king. And when all had gone away, and he was left alone, he went up
into the mountain to pray. While he was praying in the night, a great storm
arose upon the lake, and from the mountain Jesus could see his disciples
struggling against the waves, although they could not see him. A little after
midnight, when the storm was the highest, Jesus went to his disciples, walking
upon the water, just as though the sea were dry land. The men in the boat saw a
strange figure coming near them upon the sea, and cried out with fear, for they
thought that it must be a spirit. But Jesus called out to them, "Be of good
cheer; it is I; be not afraid!"
Peter spoke to Jesus, and said, "Lord, if it is you, let me come to you,
walking upon the water." "Come, then," Jesus replied.
Then Simon Peter leaped overboard from the ship, and he, too, walked on the
water to go to Jesus. But when he saw how great was the storm on the sea, he
began to be afraid, and forgetting to trust in the word of Jesus, he began to
sink. He cried out, "Lord, save me!"
And Jesus reached out his hand, and caught hold of him, and lifted him up,
saying, "O man of little faith, why did you doubt my word?"
When Jesus came on board the boat with Peter, at once the wind ceased and
the sea was calm. The disciples wondered greatly as they saw the power of
Jesus. They fell down before him, and said, "In truth you are the Son of God!"
When they came to the shore, and the daylight arose, they saw that they
were at the land of Gennesaret, a plain a little to the south of Capernaum.
They went ashore and walked to the nearest synagogue, which was full of people,
some of whom had eaten of the five loaves the day before. These people wished
Jesus to feed them in the same way again, but Jesus said to them, "Seek not for
food that passes away, but for the food that gives everlasting life, such as
the Son of man can give you." They said to him, "Moses gave our fathers bread
from heaven in the desert. What can you do?"
Then Jesus said to them, "It was not Moses, but God, who gave your fathers
bread; and God gives you now the true bread from heaven in his Son, who came
down from heaven to give life to the world."
As soon as the people found that Jesus would not work wonders to please
them, they turned away from him and left him, although only a few days before
they would have made him a king. When Jesus saw that the great crowds of people
were with him no longer, Jesus said to his twelve disciples, "Will you also go
away and leave me?"
Simon Peter answered, "Lord, to whom else can we go? For only you have the
words that will give us everlasting life."
注释
multitude[ˈmʌltitjuːd]n. 大群; 大批
shilling[ˈ∫iliŋ]n. 先令(英国旧货币单位)
. . . pieces that were left over of the five loaves and the two fishes.
leave over表示"遗留"。
例如: This is a problem left over by history. (这是历史遗留下来的问题。)of与
remain和leave的被动式连用, 可以表示"从…中余下/剩下的"。
例如: How much remains/is left of the total sum? (总数还剩下多少?)
compel[kəmˈpel]v. 强迫
cheer[t∫iə]v. 欢呼
overboard[ˈəuvəbɔːd]adv. ＆adj. 在船(车/飞机)上; 船(车/飞机)上的
ashore[əˈ∫ɔː]adv. ＆adj. 在岸上; 岸上的
everlasting[ˈevəˈlαːstiŋ]adj. 永久的
THE GLORY OF JESUS ON THE MOUNTAIN
Jesus then led his disciples north to Caesarea-philippi, at the foot of the
great Mount Hermon. Here, Jesus told his disciples what things were to come
upon him before many months. He said: "We are going up to Jerusalem; and there
the people will refuse me, the son of man; and I shall suffer many wrongs from
the rulers, and chief priests; and shall be killed; and on the third day I
shall be raised to life."
But the disciples could not believe that such terrible things would come to
pass with Jesus. They thought that he would reign as a king and that high
places in his kingdom would be given to themselves.
Peter took Jesus apart from the rest, and said to him: "Master, do not
speak of such things. You will not suffer and die. You shall be a king!"
But Jesus saw that under Peter’s words was the evil one, tempting him, and
he said to Peter: "Go from me, Satan, evil one! You are seeking not that which
is of God, but that which is of men!"
For Jesus knew that while all men wished him to be a king, ruling over a
kingdom on the earth, it was God’s will for him to die upon the cross to save
the world from sin.
Then Jesus called the people to come near with his disciples, and he said
to them all: "If any man will come after me, let him give up his own will, and
take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever has a will to save his life here,
shall lose it hereafter. And whoever is willing to give up his life for my
sake, shall find it again in the life everlasting."
One night, about a week after saying those words, Jesus called three of his
disciples, Peter, James, and John, and with them climbed up the side of Mount
Hermon. At a high place on the mountain, the three disciples lay down to sleep,
but Jesus sought his Father in prayer. While Jesus was praying, a great change
came over him. His face began to shine as bright as the sun, and his garments
became whiter than snow. The three disciples awoke, and saw their Lord with all
this glory beaming from him.
And they saw two men talking with Jesus. These were Moses and a prophet
named Elijah, who had come down from heaven to meet Jesus; and they spoke with
him of the death that he was to die in Jerusalem. As these men were passing
from the sight of the disciples, Peter spoke, scarcely knowing what he was
saying, "Master, it is good for us to be here! Let us make here three
tabernacles, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah!"
While Peter was speaking, a bright and glorious cloud came over them all;
and the three disciples felt a great fear as they found themselves in the
cloud, and no longer able to see their Master. Out of the cloud came the voice
of God, saying these words: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;
hear him!"
As the disciples heard this voice, they fell upon their faces on the ground
in great fear. And Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise up, and do not be
afraid."
Then they looked up, and the bright cloud had passed away, the two men were
no more in sight, and Jesus was standing alone. They walked together down the
mountain; and Jesus said to them very earnestly: "Do not tell to any man what
you have seen, until the Son of man is risen from the dead."
They wondered what this "rising from the dead" could mean; for even yet
they could not believe that Jesus would die. But they said nothing to anyone,
not even to the other disciples, of what they had seen upon the mountain.
注释
hereafter[hiərˈαːftə]adv. 此后
. . . death that he was to die in Jerusalem to die a death应当视为同源宾语结构,
即一个不及物动词也可以有一个与自己同根的名词做宾语。例如: to fight a fierce
fight; to smile a kind smile; to laugh a happy laugh
JESUS HEALS A MAN BORN BLIND
Jesus and his disciples soon made their way back to Jerusalem. And one
Sabbath-day, as they were walking about town, they met a blind man begging.
This man in all his life had never seen, for he had been born blind. The
disciples said to Jesus, as they were passing him, "Master, whose fault was it
that this man was born blind? Was it because he has sinned, or did his parents
sin?"
For the Jews thought that when any evil came, it was due to someone’s sin.
But Jesus said, "This man was born blind, not because of his parents’ sin, nor
because of his own; but so that God might show his power in him. We must do
God’s work while it is day; for the night is coming when no man can work. As
long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
After Jesus had said this he spat on the ground, and mixed up the spit with
earth, making a little piece of clay. This clay Jesus spread on the eyes of the
blind man, and then he said to him, "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam."
The pool of Siloam was a large pond, and to get there the blind man, with
two great heaps of mud on his face, must walk through the streets of the city,
out of the gate, and into the valley. He went, and felt his way down the steps
into the pool of Siloam. There he washed, and then at once his lifelong
blindness passed away, and he could see. When the man came back to the part of
the city where he lived, his neighbors could scarcely believe that he was the
same man.
Some of the Pharisees, the men who made a show of always obeying the law,
asked the man how he had been made to see. He said to them, "A man put clay on
my eyes, and I washed, and my sight came to me."
Some of the Pharisees said, "The man who did this is not a man of God,
because he did this work on the Sabbath day. He is a sinner."
Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such wonderful works?" And
thus the people were divided in what they thought of Jesus. They asked the man
who had been blind, "What do you think of this man who has opened your eyes?"
"He is a prophet of God!" said the man.
The rulers of the Jews, however, would not accept this, and they said to
the man; "We know that this man who made clay on the Sabbath-day is a sinner."
"Whether that man is a sinner or not, I do not know, "answered the man;
"but one thing I do know, that once I was blind, and now I see. Do you not
intend to believe in him and be his followers?"
This made them very angry, and they said to the man, "You may be his
follower; but we are followers of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses; but
as for this fellow, we do not even know from what place he comes!"
The man said, "Why, what does it matter where this man came from? Never
before has anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not
from God, he could not do such works as these!"
The rulers of the Jews, these Pharisees, then said to the man, "You were
born in sin, and you try to teach us?"
And they turned him out of the synagogue, and would not let him worship
with them. Jesus heard of this; and when Jesus found the man he had helped, he
said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"
The man said, "And who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?"
"It is he who now talks with you!"
The man said, "Lord, I believe." And he fell down before Jesus and
worshipped him.
注释
He was born blind. blind在这儿起的作用介于补语和状语之间。born后面充当这一成分
的是形容词或名词。例如: He was born parentless. (他生下来就没有父母。)
David was born an actor. (大卫是天生的演员。)
clay[klei]n. 黏土
PALM SUNDAY
Eventually, Jesus and his disciples went to Bethany, only two miles from
Jerusalem. The friends of Jesus in Bethany made a supper for him at the home of
a man named Simon. He was called "Simon the Leper;" and perhaps he was one whom
Jesus had cured of leprosy. Jesus and his disciples, as the guests, leaned upon
the couches around the table. While they were at the supper, a woman and
friend, Mary, came into the room, carrying a sealed jar of very precious
perfume. She opened the jar, and poured some of the perfume upon the head of
Jesus, and some upon his feet, and she wiped his feet with her long hair. And
the whole house was filled with the odor of the perfume.
But one of the disciples of Jesus, Judas Iscariot, was not pleased at this.
He said, "Why was such a waste of perfume made? This might have been sold for
more than forty-five dollars, and the money given to the poor!"
This he said not because he cared for the poor. Judas was the one who kept
the bag of money for Jesus and the twelve, and he was a thief, and took away
for his own use all the money that he could steal.
But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you find fault with the woman? She
has done a good work for me. You have the poor always with you, and whenever
you wish you can give to them. But you will have me with you only a little
while. She has done what she could; for she has come to perfume my body for its
burial. And truly I say to you, that wherever the gospel shall be preached
throughout the world, what this woman has done shall be told in memory of her."
Judas became very angry at Jesus; and from that time he always looked for a
chance to injure Jesus, or to give him up to his enemies. Thus, it was not long
before he went to the chief priests, and said, "What will you give me if I will
put Jesus into your hands?"
They said, "We will give you thirty pieces of silver."
And for thirty pieces of silver Judas promised to help them take Jesus, and
make him their prisoner.
On the morning after the supper at Bethany, Jesus called two of his
disciples and asked them to fetch a mule and a young horse for him. They
brought these to Jesus on the Mount of Olives, and they laid some of their own
clothes on the colt for a cushion, and set Jesus upon it. Then all the
disciples and a very great multitude threw their garments upon the ground for
Jesus to ride upon. Others cut down branches from the trees and laid them on
the ground.
And as Jesus rode over the mountain toward Jerusalem many walked before him
waving branches of palmtrees. And they all cried together: "Hosanna to the Son
of David! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed be the
kingdom of our father David, that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the
highest!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd, who did not believe in Jesus,
said to him, "Master, stop your disciples!"
But Jesus said, "I tell you, that if these should be still, the very stones
would cry out!"
And when he came into Jerusalem with all this multitude, all the city was
filled with wonder. They said, "Who is this?"
And the multitude answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth in
Galilee!"
And Jesus went into the temple, but he did not stay long, because the hour
was late. He went again to Bethany, and there stayed a night with his friends.
These things took place on Sunday, the first day of the week; and that
Sunday in the year is called Palm Sunday, because of the palm-branches which
the people carried before Jesus.
注释
palm[pαːm]n. 手掌; 棕榈树
couch[kaut∫]n. 长沙发
odor[ˈəudə]n. 气味; 香味
colt[kəult]n. 小雄马
THE LAST VISITS OF JESUS TO THE TEMPLE
On Monday morning, the second day of the week, Jesus rose very early in the
morning and, without waiting to take his breakfast, went with his disciples
from Bethany over the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem. On the mountain he saw
at a distance a fig-tree covered with leaves, and although it was early for
figs to be ripe, he hoped that he might find upon it some figs fit to be eaten.
But when Jesus came near to this tree, he saw that there was no fruit upon
it, neither ripe nor green, but leaves only. Then a thought came into the mind
of Jesus; and he spoke to the tree, while his disciples heard his words, "No
fruit shall grow on you from this time forever." And then he walked on his way
to Jerusalem. The significance of these words did not come to light for the
disciples until later.
When Jesus came to the Temple on the Monday morning before the Passover, he
found all the traders there once more, selling the oxen, and sheep, and doves
for sacrifices and changing money at the tables. And again Jesus rose up
against these people who would make his Father’s house a shop and a place of
gain. He drove them all out; he turned over the tables of the moneychangers,
scattering their money on the floor; and he cleared away the seats of those
that were selling doves. He said to all the people, "It is written in the
prophets, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you
have made it a den of robbers!’"
The Jews had made it a rule that no blind man, nor any lame man, could go
into the Temple; for they thought only those perfect in body should come before
the Lord. And when Jesus found that many blind and lame people were at the
doors of the Temple he allowed them to come in, and made them all well. And
people then began to gather around Jesus in the temple to hear what he had to
say and teach. But the rulers and chief priests grew more and more angry as
they saw the courts of the Temple filled with people. They tried to find some
way to lay their hands on Jesus, and to kill him; but they dared not while all
the crowds were around him.
All that day Jesus taught the people, and when night came he went out of
the city, over the Mount of Olives, to Bethany, where he was safe among his
friends. And on the next morning, which was Tuesday of the week before
Passover, Jesus again went over the Mount of Olives with his disciples. They
passed the fig-tree to which Jesus had spoken such strange words on the day
before. And now the disciples saw that the tree was standing, withered and
dried, with its leaves dry and rustling in the wind.
"Look, Master!" said Peter. "The fig-tree to which you spoke yesterday is
withered!"
And Jesus said to them all, "Have faith in God, for in truth I say to you,
that if you have faith, you shall not only do this which has been done to the
fig-tree; but also, if you shall say to this mountain, ‘Be moved away and
thrown into the sea!’ it shall be done. And all things, whatever they may be,
that you ask in prayer, if you have faith, shall be given to you."
Again Jesus went into the Temple and taught the people. However, the
enemies of Jesus sent to him some men, who acted as though they were honest and
true, but were in their hearts seeking to destroy Jesus. These men came, and
they said, "Master, we know that you teach the truth, and that you are not
afraid of any man. Now tell what is right, and what we should do. Ought our
people, the Jews, pay taxes to the Roman Emperor Caesar, or not?"
And they watched for his answer. If he should say, "It is right to pay the
tax, "then these men could tell the people, "Jesus is the friend of the Romans,
and the enemy of the Jews, "and then they would turn away from him. But if he
should say, "It is not right to pay the tax; refuse to pay it, "then they might
say to the Roman governor that Jesus would not obey the laws, and the governor
might put him in prison or kill him. Thus, whatever answer Jesus might give,
they hoped he might make trouble for himself.
But Jesus knew their hate and the thoughts of their hearts, and he said,
"Let me see a piece of the money that is given for the tax." They brought him a
silver piece, and he looked at it, and said, "Whose head is this on the coin?
Whose name is written over it?"
They answered him, "That is Caesar, the Roman emperor."
"Well, then," said Jesus, "give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,
and give to God the things that are God’s!"
They wondered at his answer, for it was so wise that they could speak
nothing against it. Then Jesus turned upon his enemies, and spoke to them his
last words. He told them of their wickedness, and warned them that they would
bring down the wrath of God upon them. Jesus was in the part of the Temple
called "The Treasury," because around the wall were boxes in which the people
dropped their gifts when they came to worship. Some that were rich gave much
money; but a poor widow came by and dropped in two little coins, the very
smallest amount, the two together worth only a quarter of a cent. Jesus said,
"I tell you in truth that this poor widow has dropped into the treasure more
than all the rest. For the others gave out of their plenty, but she, in her
need, has given all that she had."
And with these words Jesus rose up, and went out of the Temple for the last
time. Never again was the voice of Jesus heard within those walls.
注释
fig[fiɡ]n. 无花果
significance[siɡˈnifikəns]n. 意义
scatter[ˈskætə]v. 分散; 扩散
lay hands on抓住; 染指
governor[ˈɡʌvənə]n. 总督; 省长
turn on/upon(出其不意)攻击
widow[ˈwidəu]n. 寡妇
THE PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS
As Jesus and his disciples walked away from the temple, the disciples said
to him, referring to the temple: "Master, what a splendid building this is!
Look at these great stones in the foundation!"
Jesus answered his disciples, "Do you see these great walls? The time is
coming when these buildings shall be thrown down; when not one stone that you
are looking upon shall be left in its place; when the very foundations of this
house and this city shall be torn up!"
These words filled the followers of Jesus with the deepest sorrow, for they
loved the Temple and the city of Jerusalem, as all Jews loved it. Yet they
believed the words of their Master, for they knew that he was a prophet, whose
words were sure to come to pass, and that he was more than a prophet, even the
son of God.
They walked with Jesus down into the valley of the brook Kedron, and up the
hills of the Mount of Olives. On the top of the mountain they looked down upon
the Temple and the city; and then some of the disciples said to Jesus: "Master,
tell us when shall these dreadful things be? Give us some sign, that we may
know when they are coming."
Then Jesus sat down with his disciples on the mountain and told them of
many things that were to come upon the city and the world; how wars should
arise, and earthquakes and diseases should break forth; how enemies were to
come and fight against Jerusalem, and destroy it and scatter its people; and
how trouble should arise upon all the earth. And he told them that he would
sometime come again as the Lord of all; and that all who believe in him should
watch, and be ready to meet him. "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory,
and all the angels of God shall come with him, then he shall sit on his
glorious throne as King. And before him shall be brought together all the
people of the world; and he shall divide them, and make them stand apart, just
as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. And he shall put sheep on his
right hand, and the goats on his left. Then the King shall say to those on his
right hand, ‘Come, you, whom my Father has blessed; come, and take the kingdom
which God has made ready for you. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was
thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me into your
home; I was naked, and you gave me clothes; I was sick, and you visited me; I
was in prison, and you came to me.’"
"Then the King shall turn to those on his left hand, and shall say to them:
‘Go away from me, you cursed ones, into the everlasting fire which has been
made ready for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no
food; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you did
not open your doors to me; I was naked, and you gave me no clothes; I was sick,
and in prison, and you did not visit me. As you did it not, even to one your
fellow men, the least of my brothers, you did it not to me.’"
After these words, Jesus went with his disciples again to Bethany.
注释
parable[ˈpærəbl]n. (尤指《圣经》中的)寓言
THE LAST SUPPER
On one of the days in the week before the Passover, the disciples came to
Jesus at Bethany, and said, "Master, where shall we make ready the Passover for
you to eat?"
Then Jesus called to himself the two disciples, Peter and John, and said to
them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you;
follow him, and go into the house where he goes, and say to the head of the
house, The Master asks, ‘Where is my guestroom; where can I eat the Passover
with my disciples?’ And he will himself show you a large upper room,
furnished; there make ready for us."
Peter and John went into Jerusalem, and soon in the street they saw a man
walking toward them carrying a pitcher of water. They followed him, went into
the house where he took the pitcher, and spoke to him the words Jesus had
instructed them to speak. The man led them upstairs, and showed them a large
upper room, with the table and the couches around it, all ready for the guests
at dinner. Then the disciples went out, and brought a lamb, and roasted it; and
made ready the vegetables and the thin wafers of bread, made without yeast, for
the meal.
On Thursday afternoon, Jesus and his disciples walked out of Bethany
together, and over the Mount of Olives, and into the city. Only Jesus, who
could read the thoughts of men, knew that one of these disciples, Judas, had
made a promise to the chief priests to lead them and their servants to Jesus,
when the hour should come to seize him; and Judas was watching for the best
time to do this dreadful deed. They came into the house, and went upstairs to
the large room, where they found the supper all ready. The meal was spread upon
a table; and around the table were couches for the company. All took off their
sandals and laid around the table. Jesus was leaning at the head of the table,
and John, the disciple whom Jesus loved most, was lying next to him. While they
were eating, Jesus took bread, and gave thanks. Then he broke it, and passed a
piece to each one of the twelve, saying: "Take, and eat; this is my body which
is broken for you; do this and remember me." Afterward, he took up the cup of
wine, and passed it to each one, with the words: "This cup is my blood, shed
for you, and for many, that their sins may be taken away; as often as you drink
this, remember me."
While they were still leaning on the couches around the table, Jesus rose
up, and took off his outer robe, and then tied around his waist a long towel.
He poured water into a basin, and while all the disciples were wondering, he
carried the water to the feet of one of the disciples, and began to wash them,
just as though he himself were a servant. Then he washed the feet of another
disciple, and then of still another. And after he had washed everyone’s feet,
he put on his garments again, and leaned once more on his couch, and looked
around, and said: "If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also
ought to wash each other’s feet; for I have given you an example that you
should do to each other as I have done to you."
Then Jesus’s face became very sad and sorrowful, and he said, "Truthfully,
I say to you that one of you that are eating with me shall betray me, and give
me up to those who will kill me."
Then all the disciples looked round at each other, wondering who was the
one that Jesus meant. And Jesus said, "It is one of you twelve men, who are
dipping your hands into the same dish and eating with me. The Son of Man goes,
as it is written of him; but woe to that man who gives him up to die. It would
have been good for that man if he had never been born."
While Jesus was speaking, Simon Peter made signs to John across the table
to quietly ask Jesus who this traitor was, since he was lying next to him. So
John whispered to Jesus, "Lord, who is it?"
Jesus answered, but so low that no one else heard: "It is the one to whom I
will give a piece of bread after I have dipped it in the dish."
Then Jesus dipped into the dish a piece of bread, and gave it to Judas
Iscariot, who was lying near him. And as he gave it, he said, "Do quickly what
you are going to do."
No one except John and Judas knew what this meant. And Judas at once went
out, for he saw now that his plan was known, and it must be carried out now or
never. He knew that after the supper Jesus would go back to Bethany; and he
went to the rulers, and told them where they might watch for Jesus.
As soon as Judas had gone out, Jesus said to the eleven disciples, "Little
children, I shall be with you only a little while. I am going away; and where I
go, you cannot come now. But when I am gone away from you, remember this new
commandment that I give you, that you love one another even as I have loved
you."
Simon Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, where are you going?"
Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow
me afterward."
Peter said to him, "Lord, let me go with you. I will lay down my life for
your sake."
Jesus said, "Will you? I tell you, Peter, that before the morning you will
three times deny that you have ever known me!" But Peter said, "Though I die, I
will never deny you, Lord!"
And so said all the other disciples; but Jesus said to them, "Before
morning comes every one of you will leave me alone. Yet I will not be alone,
for the Father will be with me."
Jesus saw that Peter and all his disciples were full of sorrow at his
words, and he said, "Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I
would have told you; for I am going to make ready a place for you. And when it
is ready, I will come again, and take you to myself, that where I am, there you
may be also."
Then Jesus talked with the disciples a long time, and prayed for them. And
about midnight they left the supperroom together, and came to the Mount of
Olives.
注释
pitcher[ˈpit∫ə]n. 大罐子
wafer[ˈweifə]n. 圣饼; 华夫饼干
shed[∫ed]v. 流(血; 泪)
betray[biˈtrei]v. 出卖; 背叛
woe[wəu]n. 悲哀
THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
At the foot of the Mount of Olives, near the path over the hill toward
Bethany, there was an orchard of olive trees, called "The Garden of
Gethsemane." Jesus often went to this place with his disciples, because of its
quiet shade. At this garden he stopped, and outside he left eight of his
disciples, saying to them, "Sit here, while I go inside and pray."
He took with him Peter, James, and John, and went into the orchard. Jesus
knew that in a little while Judas would be there with a band of men to seize
him. The thought of what he was to suffer came upon him and filled his soul
with grief. He said to Peter, and James, and John: "My soul is filled with
sorrow; a sorrow that almost kills me. Stay here and watch while I am praying."
He went a little further among the trees, and threw himself down upon the
ground, and cried out, "O, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away
from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will!"
So earnest was his feeling and so great his suffering, that there came out
upon his face great drops of sweat like blood, falling upon the ground. After
some time, an angel from heaven came to him and gave him strength. He was now
ready for the fate that was soon to come.
He then returned to the three disciples and found them sleeping. Waking
them, he said: "The hour is at hand; and already the Son of man is given by the
traitor into the hands of sinners!"
The disciples awoke; they heard the noise of a crowd, and saw the flashing
of torches, and the gleaming of swords and spears. In the throng they saw Judas
standing, and they knew now that he was the traitor of whom Jesus had spoken.
Judas came rushing forward, and kissed Jesus, as though he were glad to see
him. However, this was a signal that he had given beforehand to the band; for
the men of the guard did not know Jesus
Jesus then said, "Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?" Then
turning to the crowd: "Whom do you seek?"
They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth."
"I am he. If you are seeking me, let these disciples of mine go their own
way."
But as they came forward to seize Jesus, Peter drew his sword, and struck
at one of the men in front, and cut off his right ear.
Jesus said to Peter, "Put away your sword; the cup which my Father has
given me, shall I not drink it? Do you not know that I could call upon my
Father, and he would send to me armies upon armies of angels?"
Then he spoke to the crowd: "Let me do this." And he touched the place
where the ear had been cut off, and it came on again and was well.
When the disciples of Jesus saw that he would not allow them to fight for
him, they did not know what to do. In their sudden alarm they all ran away, and
left their Master alone with his enemies. These men then took hold of Jesus,
and bound him, and led him away to the house of the high priest.
Simon Peter and John followed after the crowd of those who carried Jesus
away, and they came to the door of the high priest’s house. John knew the high
priest and went in, but Peter chose to stay in the courtyard where a fire of
charcoal had been made. Just then, a woman, who was a serving- maid in the
house, looked at Peter sharply, and finally said to him, "You were one of those
men with this Jesus of Nazareth!"
Peter was afraid to tell the truth, and he answered her, "Woman, I do not
know the man, and I do not know what you are talking about." And to get away
from her he went out onto the porch of the house. There, another woman-servant
saw him, and said, "This man was one of those with Jesus!" And Peter swore with
an oath that he did not know Jesus at all. Soon a man came by and looked at
Peter, and heard him speak, and said, "You are surely one of this man’s
disciples, for your speech shows that you came from Galilee." Then Peter began
again to curse and to swear, declaring that he did not know the man of whom
they were speaking.
Just at that moment, the loud cry of a cock startled Peter, and at the same
time he saw Jesus, who was being dragged through the hall. And the Lord turned
as he was passing and looked at Peter. And there flashed into Peter’s mind
what Jesus had said on the evening before, "Before the cock crows morning, you
will three times deny that you have ever known me." Then Peter went out of the
high priest’s house into the street, and he wept bitterly because he had
denied his Lord.
注释
band[bænd]n. 一伙; 乐队
nevertheless[ˈnevəðəˈles]conj. 然而; 但是
fate[feit]n. 命运
torch[tɔːt∫]n. 火炬; 手电筒
gleam[ɡliːm]v. 闪光
beforehand[biˈfɔːhænd]adv. 事先
porch[pɔːt∫]n. 门廊
swear[swεə]v. 起誓; 宣誓
oath[ˈəuθ]n. 誓言
crow[krəu]v. (鸡)啼叫
THE CROWN OF THORNS
At the house of the high priest the enemies of Jesus, the rulers of the
Jews, passed a vote that Jesus should be put to death. But the land of the Jews
was then ruled by the Romans, and no man could be put to death unless the Roman
governor commanded it. The Roman governor at that time was a man named Pontius
Pilate, and he was then in the city. So all the rulers and a great crowd of
people came to Pilate’s castle, bringing with them Jesus, bound with cords.
Up to this time Judas Iscariot, although he had turned over Jesus, did not
believe that he would be put to death. Perhaps he thought that Jesus would save
himself from death, as he had saved others, by some miracle. But when he saw
Jesus bound and beaten, and doing nothing to protect himself, and when he heard
the rulers vote that Jesus should be put to death, Judas knew how wicked was
the deed that he had wrought. He brought back the thirty pieces of silver that
had been given to him as a reward, and he said, "I have sinned in betraying one
who has done no wrong!"
But they answered him, "What is that to us? The money’s yours now!"
When Judas saw that they would not take back the money and let Jesus go
free, he carried the thirty pieces to the Temple, and threw them down on the
floor. Then he went away and hanged himself. And thus the traitor died.
Meanwhile, it was very early in the morning when the rulers of the Jews
brought Jesus to Pilate. They would not go into Pilate’s hall, because Pilate
was not of their nation; and Pilate came out to them, and asked them, "What
charge do you bring against this man?"
They answered, "We have found this man teaching evil, and telling men not
to pay taxes to the Emperor Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a
king."
Then Pilate went into his courtroom and sent for Jesus; and when he looked
at Jesus, he said, "Are you the King of the Jews? Your own people have brought
you to me. What have you done?"
Jesus said to him, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this
world, then those who serve me would fight to save me from my enemies. But now
my kingdom is not here."
Pilate said, "Are you a king, then?"
Jesus answered him, "I am a king. I was born that I might speak the truth
of God to men."
"Truth," said Pilate, "What is truth?"
Then, without waiting for an answer, Pilate went out to the rulers and the
crowd, and said, "I find no evil in this man."
Pilate thought that Jesus was harmless, but perhaps one whose mind was
weak, and he could see no reason why the rulers and the people should be so
bitter against him. But they cried out all the more, saying, "He influences the
people everywhere, from Galilee even to this place."
When Pilate heard the word "Galilee," he asked if this man had come from
that land. They told him that he had; and then Pilate said, "Galilee and its
people are under the rule of Herod. He has come up to Jerusalem, and I will
send this man to him."
So, from Pilate’s courtroom, Jesus was sent, still bound, to Herod’s
palace. This was the Herod who had put John the Baptist in prison, and had
given his head to a dancing girl. Herod was very glad to see Jesus, for he had
heard many things about him; and he hoped to see him do something wonderful.
But Jesus would not work wonders as a show, to be looked at; and when Herod
asked him many questions, Jesus would not speak a word. Thus, Herod would not
judge Jesus; rather, he and his soldiers mocked him, and dressed him in a gay
robe, as though he were a make-believe king, and sent him back to Pilate.
So Pilate, much against his will, was compelled to decide either for Jesus
or against him. And just as Jesus was standing bound before him, a message came
to Pilate from his wife, saying, "Do nothing against that good man; for in this
night I have suffered many things in a dream on account of him."
Pilate said to the Jews, "You have brought this man to me as one who is
leading the people to evil; and I have seen that there is no evil in him, nor
has Herod. Seeing as it is the time of the great feast, and it is our custom to
release one prisoner as a show of good will, I give you the choice of freeing
this man, Jesus, or another."
And at that time there was in the prison a man named Barabbas, who was a
robber and a murderer. As it turns out, the rulers had gone among the people
and urged them to ask for Barabbas to be set free. And the crowd cried out,
"Free Barabbas!"
Then Pilate said, "What, then, shall I do with Jesus?"
And they all cried out, "Let him die on the cross!"
Pilate wished greatly to spare the life of Jesus. And to show how he felt,
he sent for water, and he washed his hands before all the people, saying, "My
hands are clean from the blood of this good man!"
And they cried out, "Let his blood be on us, and on our children after us!
Send him to the cross!"
Then Pilate, to please the people, gave them what they asked. He set free
Barabbas, the man of their choice, though he was a robber and a murderer; but
before giving way to the cry that he should send Jesus to the cross, he tried
once more to save his life. He caused Jesus to be beaten until the blood came
upon him, hoping that this might satisfy the people. Because Jesus referred to
himself as a king, the soldiers who beat him made a crown of thorns, and put it
on his head; and they put on him a purple robe, such as was worn by kings, and
bowing down before him they cried, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
Then, hoping to awaken some pity for Jesus, Pilate brought him out to the
people, with the crown of thorns and the purple robe upon him, and said, "Look
on this man!"
But again the cry arose, "Send him to the cross!"
And at last Pilate yielded to the voice of the people. He gave the command
that Jesus, whom he knew to be a good man, one who had done nothing evil,
should be put to death upon the cross.
注释
thorn[θɔːn]n. 荆棘; 刺
They would not go into Pilate’s hall, because Pilate was not of their nation.
当天是逾越节。犹太人不愿进异族人彼拉多的宅邸, 怕染了污秽, 不能吃逾越节宴。
mock[mɔk]n. ＆v. 嘲弄
make-believe[ˈmeikbiˈliːv]adj. 虚假的, 虚伪的
Seeing as it is the time of the great feast. Seeing: 鉴于; 因为; 引导原因状语
great feast: 当日是逾越节
release[riˈliːs]v. 释放
purple[ˈpəːpl]adj. ＆n. 紫的; 紫色
THE DARKEST DAY OF ALL THE WORLD
Following the orders of the Roman governor, the soldiers then took Jesus
and beat him again most cruelly; and then led him out of the city to the place
of death. This was a place called "Golgotha" in the Jewish language, "Calvary"
in that of the Romans; both words meaning "The Skull Place."
With the soldiers went out of the city a great crowd of people, some of
them enemies of Jesus, glad to see him suffer; others of them friends of Jesus,
weeping as they saw him, all covered with blood, and going out to die. But
Jesus turned to them, and said, "Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves,
and for your children. For the days are coming when they shall count those
happy who have no little ones to be slain; when they shall wish that the
mountains might fall on them, and the hills might cover them, and hide them
from their enemies!"
They had tried to make Jesus carry his own cross, but soon found that he
was too weak from his sufferings, and could not carry it. They seized a man who
was coming out of the country into the city, a man named Simon; and they made
him carry the cross to its place at Calvary.
It was a custom among the Jews, to give to men about to die by the cross
some medicine to deaden their feelings, so that they would not suffer so
greatly. They offered this to Jesus, but when he had tasted it, and found what
it was, he would not take it. He knew that he would die, but he wished to have
his mind clear, and to understand what was done and what was said, even though
his sufferings might be greater.
At Calvary they laid the cross down, and stretched Jesus upon it, and drove
nails through his hands and feet to fasten him to the cross; and then they
stood it upright with Jesus upon it. While the soldiers were doing this
dreadful work, Jesus prayed for them to God, saying, "Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they are doing."
Two men who had been robbers and had been sentenced to die by the cross,
were led out to die at the same time with Jesus. One was placed on a cross at
his right side, and the other at his left; and to make Jesus appear as the
worst, his cross stood in the middle. And over the head of Jesus on his cross,
they placed, by Pilate’s order, a sign on which was written: "THIS IS JESUS OF
NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."
And the people who passed by on the road, as they looked at Jesus on the
cross, mocked him. Some called out to him, "You that would destroy the Temple,
and build it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down
from the cross!"
And one of the robbers who was on his own cross beside that of Jesus joined
in the cry, and said, "If you are the Christ, save yourself and save us!"
But the other robber said to him, "Have you no fear of God, to speak thus,
while you are suffering the same fate with this man? We deserve to die, but
this man has done nothing wrong." Then this man said to Jesus, "Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom."
And Jesus answered him, as they were both hanging on their crosses: "Today
you shall be with me in heaven."
At about noon a sudden darkness came over the land, and lasted for three
hours. And in the middle of the afternoon, when Jesus had been on the cross six
hours in terrible pain, he cried out aloud: "My God, why have you forsaken me?"
After this he said weakly, "I thirst!"
And someone dipped a sponge into a cup of vinegar, and put it upon a reed,
and gave him a drink of it. Then Jesus spoke his last words upon the cross: "It
is finished! Father, into your hands I give my spirit!" And then Jesus died.
Some time afterward, one of the soldiers, to be sure that Jesus was no
longer living, ran his spear into the side of his dead body; and out of the
wound came pouring both water and blood.
Those who were sympathizers of Jesus, took down his body from the cross and
wrapped it in fine linen. Then they placed the body in a new tomb, which was a
cave dug out of the rock, in a garden near the place of the cross. And before
the opening of the cave they rolled a great stone.
On the next morning, some of the rulers of the Jews came to Pilate, and
said: "Sir, we remember that that man Jesus of Nazareth, who deceived the
people, said while he was yet alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
Give orders that the tomb shall be watched and made sure for three days; or
else his disciples may steal his body, and then say, ‘He is risen from the
dead;’ and thus even after his death he may do more harm than he did while he
was alive."
Pilate said to them, "Set a watch, and make it as sure as you can."
Then they placed a seal upon the stone, so that no one might break it; and
they set a watch of soldiers at the door. And in the tomb the body of Jesus lay
from the evening of Friday, the day when he died on the cross, to the dawn of
Sunday, the first day of the week.
注释
skull[skʌl]n. 骷髅
upright[ˈʌpˈrait]adj. ＆adv. 直立的; 直立
deserve[diˈzəːv]v. 值得; 该
sponge[spʌndʒ]n. 海绵
sympathizer[ˈsimpəθaizə]n. 同情者
linen[ˈlinin]n. 亚麻布
THE BRIGHTEST DAY OF ALL THE WORLD
On Sunday morning, the third day of Jesus’ death, some women went very
early, as soon as it was light, to the tomb in the garden. One of these women
was Mary Magdalene, a woman Jesus had met over the course of his travels and
freed from an evil spirit; another was also named Mary; and the third was named
Salome. They were bringing some more fragrant spices to place in the wrappings
upon the body of Jesus. And as they went they said to each other, "Who will
roll away for us the great stone at the door of the cave?"
But when they came to the cave, they saw that the seal was broken, the
stone was rolled away, and the soldiers who had been on guard were gone. There
stood the tomb of Jesus all open! They did not know that before they came to
the tomb there had been an earthquake; and that an angel had come down from
heaven and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. When the soldiers on guard
saw the angel, with his flashing face, and his dazzling garments, they fell to
the ground as though they were dead, and as soon as they could rise up, they
fled away from the spot in terror.
Mary Magdalene left the other two women and ran from the tomb; and she wept
as she thought of her Lord, slain by wicked men, and not even allowed to rest
in peace. Later, she returned, still weeping, and stooped and looked into the
tomb. There she saw two men in white garments sitting where Jesus once lay.
Then something caused her to turn around; and she saw a man standing behind
her. It was Jesus; but her eyes were held for a moment from knowing him. He
said to her, "Woman, why do you weep?"
She supposed that he was the gardener, and said, hardly looking at him,
"Sir, if you have carried Jesus out of this place, tell me where you have laid
him, and I will take him away."
Then the stranger spoke her name, "Mary!" and she knew that he was Jesus,
no longer dead, but living. She turned around, and fell down before him, and
was about to seize his feet, as she said, "My Master!"
But Jesus said to her, "Do not take hold of me; I am not yet going away to
my Father. But do you go to my brothers, and say to them, I go up to my Father
and to your Father, to my God, and to your God!"
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples how she had seen the Lord, and
how he had spoken these things to her. So this was the first time that anyone
saw Jesus after he rose from the dead.
Meanwhile, the other two women, Mary and Salome, had already departed,
returning to the city, and were looking for the disciples, when suddenly Jesus
himself stood before them, and said, "Do not be afraid; but find my brothers,
and tell them to go into Galilee and they shall see me there."
That night, the ten disciples and other followers of Jesus were together in
a room, and the doors were shut. Suddenly Jesus himself was seen standing among
them; and he said, "Peace be with you!"
Some of them were alarmed when they saw him and thought that he must be a
spirit. Be he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do fears come to
you? Look at the wounds in my hands and my feet! Handle me, and see. A spirit
does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have." He then added: "Have
you anything to eat?"
They gave him a piece of fish and some honey, and he ate before them. And
he said, "I told you, while I was with you, that everything written of me must
come to pass. It was necessary that Christ should suffer thus, and should rise
from the dead, and that everywhere the gospel should be preached in his name. I
will send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in Jerusalem after I
leave you, until power shall come to you from on high."
Then when the disciples saw that it was really the Lord, and that he was
risen from the dead, they were glad. And this Sunday was the brightest day in
all the world, because on it Jesus rose from the dead. And that Sunday in every
year is called Easter Sunday.
注释
stoop[stuːp]v. 俯身
depart[diˈpαːt]v. 离开
THE STRANGER ON THE SHORE
Mary and Salome informed the eleven disciples of Jesus’s desire that they
go to Galilee. And, immediately, the eleven departed. And once in Galilee, a
number of them encountered Jesus while fishing at the sea. All night they had
fished without a single catch. And just as the day was breaking they saw
someone standing on the beach. The person called out to them, "Boys, have you
caught anything?"
They answered him, "No."
He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you will
find some fish."
The quick eyes of John, the beloved disciple, were the first to then see
who this stranger was. He said to Peter, "Look! It is the Lord!"
When Peter heard this, he released the fishing net, leaped into the water,
and swam to the shore. But the other six disciples stayed in the boat, and
rowed to the shore, dragging after them the net full of fish. When they came to
the beach, they found burning a fire of charcoal, and a fish cooking upon it,
and a loaf of bread beside it. They all knew now that it was the Lord Jesus,
and he said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have now caught."
Simon Peter waded out to where the net was floating, filled with fish, and
drew it to the shore. Afterward they counted the fish that were in it, and
found them to be one hundred and fifty-three in number. And Jesus said to them,
"Come now and breakfast." Thus the seven disciples ate a breakfast with their
risen Lord. After the breakfast, Jesus turned to Simon Peter, the one who three
times had denied that he knew Jesus, and he said to him, "Simon, do you love
me?"
Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I do."
Jesus then said to him, "Feed my lambs."
And after a time Jesus said again, "Simon, do you love me?"
Peter answered him as before, "Yes Lord; you know I do."
And Jesus said to him, "Care for my sheep."
The third time Jesus said to him, "Simon, do you love me?"
Peter was troubled to have this question asked again and again, and he
answered, "Lord, you know all things, and you know I love you."
And thus Peter, after three times denying his lord, had now three times
declared his love to Christ, and was again called to his place among the
disciples.
After this the followers of Jesus met on a mountain in Galilee, with more
than five hundred people gathered around; and there Jesus showed himself to
them all. He said to them: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go
therefore and preach my gospel to all the nations of the earth, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to
keep all the commands that I have given you. And I am with you always, even to
the end of the world."
Then, once more, and a final time, the risen Savior showed himself to all
his eleven disciples. And he said to them: "When the Holy Spirit comes upon
you, you shall have a new power, and you shall speak in my name in Jerusalem,
and in Judea, and in Samaria, and in the farthest parts of the earth."
Jesus led his disciples out of the city and over the Mount of Olives, near
the village of Bethany. And he lifted up his hands in blessing upon them; and
while he was blessing them, he began to rise in the air, higher and higher,
until a cloud covered him and the disciples saw him no more.
While they were looking up toward heaven, they found two men, like angels,
with shining garments, standing by them. These men said: "O you men of Galilee,
why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from
you, shall come again from heaven to earth, as you have seen him go up from
earth to heaven!"
Then the disciples were glad. They worshipped their risen Lord Jesus, now
gone up to heaven; and they went again to Jerusalem. And they were constantly
in the Temple, praising and giving thanks to God.
注释
. . . and was called to his place among the disciples was called: 被感召(做某
事)例如: To feel/be called to the ministry. 感觉到(上帝的)召唤让自己从事神职工
作。