玛加伯下 2 Maccabees Chapter 8
2 Maccabees
Chapter 8

1 Judas Maccabeus and his companions entered the villages, secretly, summoned their kinsmen, and by also enlisting others who remained faithful to Judaism, assembled about six thousand men.

犹大玛加伯与他的同人暗暗走到各乡村,向同族的人呼吁,把固守犹太教的人,集合起来,约有六千人。

2 They implored the Lord to look kindly upon his people, who were being oppressed on all sides; to have pity on the temple, which was profaned by godless men;

他们恳求上主,垂顾为人人蹂躏的民族,怜悯被恶人亵渎的圣殿,

3 to have mercy on the city, which was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground; to hearken to the blood that cried out to him;

怜恤已经毁坏且快夷为平地的京城,俯听向他喊冤的血声,

4 to remember the criminal slaughter of innocent children and the blasphemies uttered against his name; and to manifest his hatred of evil.

记念无罪婴儿所遭的残杀,向咒骂他圣名的恶人发怒泄恨。

5 Once Maccabeus got his men organized, the Gentiles could not withstand him, for the Lord's wrath had now changed to mercy.

8:5玛加伯组成一支军队以后,外邦人就无法抵抗他,因为上主的义怒已经变成了怜悯。

6 Coming unexpectedly upon towns and villages, he would set them on fire. He captured strategic positions, and put to flight a large number of the enemy.

他屡次在人不料想的时候,去袭击城镇,放火焚烧,占据要塞,使敌人屡遭溃败。

7 He preferred the nights as being especially helpful for such attacks. Soon the fame of his valor spread everywhere.

他为作战顺利,特别喜爱夜间进袭,因此他勇敢的声誉传遍各地。

8 1 When Philip saw that Judas was gaining ground little by little and that his successful advances were becoming more frequent, he wrote to Ptolemy, governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, to come to the aid of the king's government.

斐理伯见这人势力渐渐强大,所作的事日渐成功,遂致书与切肋叙利亚和腓尼基的总督仆托肋米,请他援助国王的事务。

9 Ptolemy promptly selected Nicanor, son of Patroclus, one of the Chief Friends, and sent him at the head of at least twenty thousand armed men of various nations to wipe out the entire Jewish race. With him he associated Gorgias, a professional military commander, well-versed in the art of war.

他遂立时指派了帕托克罗的儿子尼加诺尔,君王的一个知心好友,带领各国的联军,人数不下二万,去消灭犹太民族;又派了一位富有作战经验的大将哥尔基雅援助他。

10 Nicanor planned to raise the two thousand talents of tribute owed by the king to the Romans by selling captured Jews into slavery.

尼加诺尔想贩卖掳来的犹太人,去填补国王欠罗马人的两千"塔冷通"税款。

11 So he immediately sent word to the coastal cities, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to deliver ninety slaves for a talent--little did he dream of the punishment that was to fall upon him from the Almighty.

于是立时派入到沿海各城市去,叫他们收买犹太奴隶,与他们约定每九十人一"塔冷通",却一点也不想全能者正要加于他的刑罚。

12 When Judas learned of Nicanor's advance and informed his companions about the approach of the army,

有人将尼加诺尔进军的消息报告给犹大,他就把敌军进袭的消息告诉了他的部下。

13 the cowardly and those who lacked faith in God's justice deserted and got away.

那些胆小的和不依恃上主公义的人就逃到别的地方去了;

14 But the others sold everything they had left, and at the same time besought the Lord to deliver those whom the ungodly Nicanor had sold before even meeting them.

其余的人变卖了自己尚存的一切,一同祈求上主拯救那些在交战以前,就被凶恶的尼加诺尔卖掉了的人们,

15 They begged the Lord to do this, if not for their sake, at least for the sake of the covenants made with their forefathers, and because they themselves bore his holy, glorious name.

求主若不为了他们自己,至少为了与他们祖先立的盟约,为了在他们身上称呼的可敬而伟大的圣名,拯救他们。

16 Maccabeus assembled his men, six thousand strong, and exhorted them not to be panic-stricken before the enemy, nor to fear the large number of the Gentiles attacking them unjustly, but to fight courageously,

玛加伯集合自己同人,约有六千,劝他们不要临敌惊慌,不要怕那些无理袭击他们的外方人数目众多,只要勇敢作战,

17 keeping before their eyes the lawless outrage perpetrated by the Gentiles against the holy Place and the affliction of the humiliated city, as well as the subversion of their ancestral way of life.

把外方人无理加于圣所的亵渎,京城遭受的凌辱与虐待,以及传统制度遭受的破坏等事放在眼前。

18 "They trust in weapons and acts of daring," he said, "but we trust in almighty God, who can by a mere nod destroy not only those who attack us, but the whole world."

继而又说:"他们仗着武器和奋勇;至于我们只应依靠全能的天主,他能转瞬之间,击倒攻打我们的敌人和整个世界。"

19 He went on to tell them of the times when help had been given their ancestors: both the time of Sennacherib, when a hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men were destroyed,

玛加伯还给他们引述了他们的祖先获得的救助:在散乃黑黎布时,怎样十八万五千人一时同归于尽;

20 and the time of the battle in Babylonia against the Galatians, when only eight thousand Jews fought along with four thousand Macedonians; yet when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the eight thousand routed one hundred and twenty thousand and took a great quantity of booty, because of the help they received from Heaven.

在巴比伦与迦拉达人作战时,来作战的人共有八千,此外还有四千马其顿人助战。当马其顿人陷于困境时,这八千人怎样赖上天的助佑,消灭了十二万敌人,并且还得了许多战利品。

21 With such words he encouraged them and made them ready to die for their laws and their country. Then Judas divided his army into four,

用这番话激发起他们的勇气,叫大家准备为法律和国家而牺牲;以后他就把军队分成四队:

22 2 placing his brothers, Simon, Joseph, and Jonathan, each over a division, assigning to each fifteen hundred men.

立自己的兄弟息孟、若瑟和约纳堂为每队的队长,叫他们各人率领一千五百人。

23 (There was also Eleazar.) After reading to them from the holy book and giving them the watchword, "The Help of God," he himself took charge of the first division and joined in battle with Nicanor.

此外,又令厄次辣诵读圣经,然后立定"天主助佑"为口号;犹大就亲自率领第一队,进攻尼加诺尔:

24 With the Almighty as their ally, they killed more than nine thousand of the enemy, wounded and disabled the greater part of Nicanor's army, and put all of them to flight.

因为全能者与他们一同作战,击杀了敌军九千多人,使尼加诺尔的军队大部分受了伤,成了残废,迫使剩下的都逃走了。

25 They also seized the money of those who had come to buy them as slaves. When they had pursued the enemy for some time,

来购买他们的人带来的银钱,也都夺回来,且追赶他们直至相当远的路程;只因为时光有限,才得赶回来,

26 they were obliged to return by reason of the late hour, it was the day before the sabbath, and for that reason they could not continue the pursuit.

因为那时正值安息日前夕,所以不能继续追赶。

27 They collected the enemy's arms and stripped them of their spoils, and then observed the sabbath with fervent praise and thanks to the Lord who kept them safe for that day on which he let descend on them the first dew of his mercy.

他们拾取敌人的武器,掠取他们的财物,以后就举行安息日,全心称谢赞颂上主,因为他今日开始把恩露洒在他们身上。

28 After the sabbath, they gave a share of the booty to the persecuted and to widows and orphans; the rest they divided among themselves and their children.

过了安息日,他们便把一部分战利品分赠给受害的人、孤儿和寡妇剩下的他们自己和子女分了。

29 When this was done, they made supplication in common, imploring the merciful Lord to be completely reconciled with his servants.

办完这事,又共同祈祷,恳求仁慈的上主,完全与他的仆人们和好。

30 They also challenged the forces of Timothy and Bacchides, killed more than twenty thousand of them, and captured some very high fortresses. They divided the enormous plunder, allotting half to themselves and the rest to the persecuted, to orphans, widows, and the aged.

他们又与提摩太和巴基德的军队交战,杀死了他们两万多人,并且也占领了几座很高大的堡垒,将获得的无数战利品,平均分为两分:一份为他们自己,一份为受害的人、孤儿、寡妇和老人。

31 They collected the enemies' weapons and carefully stored them in suitable places; the rest of the spoils they carried to Jerusalem.

又拾取了敌人的军械。把这一切细心安放在适宜的地方。余下的战利品悉数运到耶路撒冷去。

32 They also killed the commander of Timothy's forces, a most wicked man, who had done great harm to the Jews.

又杀了提摩太部队的一个军长,这人非常暴虐无道,曾残害过犹太人。

33 While celebrating the victory in their ancestral city, they burned both those who had set fire to the sacred gates and Callisthenes, who had taken refuge in a little house; so he received the reward his wicked deeds deserved.

当他们在祖国庆祝胜利时,将从前焚烧过圣殿的门,而如今与卡里斯特乃逃到一个小房里的人,都用火烧死。如此他们得了因行亵渎应得的报应。

34 The accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand slave dealers to buy the Jews,

那曾带一千商人来购买犹太人的万恶的尼加诺尔,

35 after being humbled through the Lord's help by those whom he had thought of no account, laid aside his fine clothes and fled alone across country like a runaway slave, until he reached Antioch. He was eminently successful in destroying his own army.

如今却因上主赐给犹太人的救助,被他所最轻视的人们制服了。他脱去了自己耀武扬威的官服,似亡命之徒,独自一人跑过了旷野;在他全军复没以后,他还能跑到安提约基雅去,这为他算是太幸运了。

36 So he who had promised to provide tribute for the Romans by the capture of the people of Jerusalem testified that the Jews had a champion, and that they were invulnerable for the very reason that they followed the laws laid down by him. Death of Antiochus

曾负责以贩卖耶路撒冷俘虏的价钱偿还罗马人的税款的人,如今反倒声明犹太人确实有一位保护者,若是犹太人遵从他立的法律,他们绝对不会受任何伤害。



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Footnotes                       (注解)

1 [8-29, 34-35] This account of the campaign of Nicanor and Gorgias against Judas is paralleled, with certain differences, in 1 Macc 3:38-4:24.

2 [22] Joseph: called John in 1 Macc 2:2; 9:36, 38; this paragraph interrupts the story of Nicanor's defeat, which is resumed in 2 Macc 8:34. The purpose of the author apparently is to group together the defeats suffered by the Syrians on various occasions. Battles against Timothy are recounted in 1 Macc 5:37-44; 2 Macc 12:10-25; against Bacchides, in 1 Macc 7:8-20.