9　犹太人寻找家园

“乌尔”（Ur）一词，由U和r这两个英文字母所组成。这是我所知的最短的英语单词之一。它是叫作迦勒底的这个小地方的一个地名。公元前1900年左右，这个地方住着一个名叫亚伯拉罕的人。亚伯拉罕有一大家子，并且虽说没有钱，可他却很富裕。他家里养着大群大群的绵羊和山羊；而在那个时候，这可是两种主要的财产呢。当时，亚伯拉罕和我们一样，只信仰一个神；可他的那些邻居，即古巴比伦人，却崇拜许多的神灵和天体，比如我上一节已经提到过的太阳啊，月亮啊，星辰啊。由于这个原因，亚伯拉罕与邻居们的关系并不好；而他的邻居们也不喜欢他，因为邻居们都觉得亚伯拉罕的想法很古怪，甚至还很愚蠢。于是，在公元前1900年左右，亚伯拉罕便带上他的那一大家子人，连同他家的牲口牛羊，都搬到地中海附近一个叫作哈兰的遥远之地去了。

亚伯拉罕活到很老才死，因此膝下儿孙众多。他有个孙子叫雅各，而雅各还有一个更著名的名字，那就是“以色列”；雅各又有一个叫作约瑟的儿子。你们很可能还记得，《圣经》故事中曾经说到，约瑟是雅各最喜欢的一个儿子，他还有一件五彩斑斓的衣服。约瑟的哥哥们都很嫉妒他，因为小孩子都很容易嫉妒比自己更招人喜欢的孩子，甚至小狗也会这样呢。于是，他们便把约瑟推到一口井里，后来又

anyone who is liked better than they are. So they put Joseph into a well and then sold him as a slave to some Egyptians who were passing by.Then they told their father Jacob that Joseph had been killed by wild animals.The Egyptians took Joseph to far-off Egypt—far away from Canaan.

As I told you,it was very difficult for anyone to work his way up out of his class to a higher class. Nevertheless,Joseph was a slave in Egypt,and he was so bright that at last he became one of the rulers in Egypt.

At that time when he was ruler,there came a famine in Canaan and there was no food. In Egypt,however,there was plenty of food stored up.So Joseph's wicked brothers went down to Egypt to beg the rulers for bread.They probably thought by that time their brother was dead.They did not know that he had become such a great man and that he was now the ruler from whom they were begging food.You can imagine how surprised they were and how ashamed they must have felt when they found out that the great ruler was their own brother,whom they had planned to kill and then had sold as a slave.

Joseph might have let his brothers starve to death or put them in prison,or sent them back to Canaan without anything,if he had wanted to revenge himself on them.Instead of doing any of these things,he gave them not only all the food they wanted and more to

把他卖给过路的埃及人做奴隶。然后，他们便对父亲雅各说，约瑟被野兽吃掉了。那些埃及人则把约瑟带往了远方，带往了距哈兰十分遥远的埃及。

我在前面已经告诉过你们，在古埃及，一个人是很难跳出本身所属的等级而上升到较高等级的。但尽管如此，尽管约瑟起初只是埃及的一个奴隶，但由于他非常聪明，所以最终变成了埃及的统治者之一。

他当上了统治者之后，哈兰发生了饥荒，没有了粮食。然而在埃及，人们却储存了大量的粮食。因此，约瑟那些恶毒的哥哥们便南下前往埃及，乞求埃及的统治者给他们施舍面包。他们很可能认为，那时他们的弟弟约瑟早就已经死了。可他们并不知道，约瑟已经变成了大人物，变成了如今他们要去乞求其施舍食物的统治者。你们可以想见，当他们发现那位伟大的统治者就是自己的弟弟，就是他们曾经计划谋害、然后又把他当成奴隶卖掉的弟弟之后，他们是多么的惊讶和羞愧啊。

假如约瑟想要报仇的话，他本来是可以让自己的哥哥们饿死、将他们关进监狱或者什么也不给就打发他们回哈兰的。可他并没有这样做；他不但给了他们想要的粮食，并且多给了许多粮食让他们带回去，还送给了他们很多贵重的礼物。然

take back home,but made them rich presents besides. Then he told them to go back and get the rest of his family and return with them to Egypt,and he promised to give them a piece of land called Goshen where there would be no famines and they might live happily.They did as they were told,and Israel and his sons and all their families came down and settled in Goshen about 1700 B.C.They were called Israelites,which means of course the children of Israel.These are the people we now call the Jews.

After Joseph,who was of course an Israelite himself,died,the kings or Pharaohs of Egypt did not like these foreign people and treated them very badly,as other peoples have often treated the Jews badly ever since. Though the Jews and their children and children's children lived in Egypt for about four hundred years,they were enslaved by the Egyptians.

Now about four hundred years from the time the Jews first came into Egypt—400 from 1700 is 1300 B. C.—there was a ruler of Egypt called Rameses the Great.

Rameses so feared the growing number of Jews that finally he gave orders to have every Jewish boy baby killed.In this way he thought to control these people.One little Jewish boy named Moses,however,was saved,and when he grew up he became the greatest leader of his people.Moses wanted to get the Jews out of this hostile country where the people worshiped false gods.At last he led all his people out of Egypt across the Red Sea.This was called the Exodus,and

后，他让哥哥们回去，带上其他的家人回到埃及来，并且还承诺赐给他们一处叫作歌珊地的土地，那里不会有饥荒，他们可以生活得很幸福。他们遵照弟弟的吩咐去做了；于是，公元前1700年左右，以色列和他的所有儿子和家人便全都南下而去，在歌珊地定居下来。他们被称作“以色列人”，这当然是指他们都是以色列的后裔。这个民族，就是如今我们所称的犹太人。

本身当然也是以色列人的约瑟死后，古埃及的国王或者法老都很不喜欢这些外国人，对他们很不好；而自那以后，其他民族也开始欺负犹太人了。尽管犹太人祖祖辈辈在埃及生活了大约四百年的时间，但他们一直都受到埃及人的奴役。

从犹太人最初踏入埃及之时过了大约四百年后（1700减去400，就是公元前1300年），埃及出了一个统治者，叫作拉美西斯大帝。

由于拉美西斯对犹太人数量的日益增加极为担心，所以最终他下令，将所有的犹太男婴全都杀掉。他认为，这样就可以牢牢控制住犹太民族了。然而，有一个叫作摩西的犹太小男孩却被救了下来，并且长大后成了犹太民族最伟大的领袖。摩西想要带领犹太人离开这个对他们充满敌意、民众又崇拜邪教神灵的国度。最后，他率领族人横渡红海，离开了埃及。这一事件，被称为“出埃及记”，发生在公元前

it took place about 1300 B. C.

After the Jews had left Egypt,they first stopped at the foot of a mountain called Mount Sinai,while Moses went up to the top where he could be by himself and learn what God wanted him and the Jews to do. Moses spent forty days praying on top of the mountain.When he came down from the mountain-top,he brought with him the Ten Commandments,the same Ten Commandments you may have learned in Sunday school.But Moses had been gone so long that when he came back again to his people,he found them worshiping a golden calf as the Egyptians had done.They had lived in Egypt until they had come to think it was all right to worship idols.

Moses was very angry. It was high time,he thought,that they should get rid of the bad influence of their old Egyptian neighbors.At last he succeeded in making them worship God again and gave them the Ten Commandments for their rule of life.So Moses is called a lawgiver and the first teacher of the Jewish religion.The Jews wandered from place to place for a great many years before Moses died.Then Joshua,their new leader,led them into Canaan.

The Jews had no kings.They were ruled by men called judges,but the judges lived very simply,just like everyone else and not

1300年左右。

犹太人离开埃及之后，他们先是在一座叫作西奈山的山脚下停了下来，而摩西则爬上了山顶；在那里，他独自一人，聆听着上帝对于他和犹太人行动的启示。他在西奈山顶上祷告了四十天。从山顶下来之后，他带来了十条戒律，这就是你们在主日学校可能已经学习过的《十诫》。但由于摩西在山上祷告的时间太久，所以他下山回到族人当中后，却发现族人竟然像埃及人那样，在崇拜一头金牛犊。他们在埃及生活得太久，竟然开始认为崇拜多个神灵也是正确的了。

摩西非常生气。他认为，此时已经到了摆脱原来埃及对他们的坏影响的时候了。最后，他成功地让族人重新开始礼拜上帝，并且将《十诫》授予他们，让他们奉行为生活准则。于是，摩西便被称为犹太教的立法者和第一位导师。摩西死前，犹太人四处漂泊流浪了许多年。后来，新的领袖约书亚带领他们回到了哈兰。

犹太人没有国王。他们由那些叫作“士师”的人统治着，而这些士师生活得非常简朴，就像其他人一样，而不是像在皇宫里的国王那样，仆役成群，穿着精美的

like kings in palaces with servants and fine robes and rich jewels. But the Jews thought it would be better to have a real king like their neighbors had.

At last a judge who was named Samuel said they should have a king,and Saul was chosen. Then Samuel poured olive-oil over Saul's head.To us this seems a strange thing to do,but it took the place of putting a crown on his head and was a sign that he was to be king.Samuel,therefore,was the last one of their judges,and Saul was their first king.

All other nations at that time believed as the Egyptians and Chaldeans did,in many different gods. The Jews alone believed in one God and lived by laws they believed God had given them.They had a holy book that contained these laws and recorded their early history.This book is also known as the Old Testament and has been made a part of the Christian Bible.Many Old Testament stories also appear in the Koran,the Muslims'holy book.

This is the story of the Jews,who gave us the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments,and here is the way they wandered：

From Ur to Canaan—1900 B. C.

From Canaan to Egypt—1700 B. C.

From Egypt back to Canaan—1300 B. C.You can see that they finally settled down in Canaan,and then they called that land their home.

袍子、戴着贵重的珠宝。不过，犹太人认为，像别的国家那样有一个真正的国王，可能会更好一些。

最后，一名叫作撒母耳的士师说，他们应当有一个国王；于是，他们便选举扫罗来当国王。接着，撒母耳又把橄榄油浇到扫罗的头上。在我们看来，这是一件很奇怪的事情；但在当时，这跟将一顶王冠戴到他头上是一样的，是他成为国王的标志。因此，撒母耳便成了犹太人的最后一位士师，而扫罗则成了犹太人的第一任国王。

当时，所有的民族都像古埃及人和迦勒底人一样，信仰许多不同的神灵。只有犹太人信仰一个上帝，并且遵照戒律生活；他们认为，这些戒律都是上帝授予他们的。他们有一本圣书，里面记载着这些戒律，并且记录着他们早期的历史。这本书，也被称作《旧约全书》，如今已经成为基督教《圣经》中的一个组成部分。《旧约全书》中的许多故事，也出现在《古兰经》里。

这就是犹太人的历史；他们给我们带来了《旧约全书》和《十诫》。下面就是他们漂泊流浪的路线：

从乌尔城到哈兰——公元前1900年；

从哈兰到埃及——公元前1700年；

从埃及返回哈兰——公元前1300年。你们能够看出，他们最终是在哈兰定居下来了，因而后来他们把这个地方叫作自己的故乡。