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Ex 5:1-23.
英文原文
Ex 5:1-23.
FIRST INTERVIEW WITH PHARAOH.
1. Moses and Aaron went in--As representatives of the Hebrews, they were entitled to ask an audience of the king, and their thorough Egyptian training taught them how and when to seek it.
and told Pharaoh--When introduced, they delivered a message in the name of the God of Israel. This is the first time He is mentioned by that national appellation in Scripture. It seems to have been used by divine direction
(Ex 4:2)
and designed to put honor on the Hebrews in their depressed condition
(Heb 11:16).
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2. 法老说:耶和华是谁——更准确地说,是「雅巍(Jehovah)」。主(Lord)是应用于敬拜对象的常用名称;但雅巍却是一个他从未听过的名。法老凭这些敬拜者卑贱可悲的处境来估量这位神的性情与大能,断定祂在众神之中正如祂的百姓在国中一样,地位同样低下。要显明真神超越埃及一切的神,正是降下诸灾的目的。
我不认识耶和华,也不容以色列人去——因他的尊荣与利益都牵涉在内,他决意要镇压这事,便以傲慢——或许是亵渎——的口吻,拒绝了释放希伯来奴隶的请求。
英文原文
2. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord--rather "Jehovah." Lord was a common name applied to objects of worship; but Jehovah was a name he had never heard of. Pharaoh estimated the character and power of this God by the abject and miserable condition of the worshippers and concluded that He held as low a rank among the gods as His people did in the nation. To demonstrate the supremacy of the true God over all the gods of Egypt, was the design of the plagues.
I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go--As his honor and interest were both involved he determined to crush this attempt, and in a tone of insolence, or perhaps profanity, rejected the request for the release of the Hebrew slaves.
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3. 希伯来人的神遇见了我们——他们并未被激怒而发出斥责或威胁,而是温和地使他确信,这并非出于他们自己的提议,而是他们的神所吩咐当尽的本分。他们多年来被剥夺了宗教敬拜的权利,而且有理由担心,若长久忽略神圣的礼仪,必招惹被得罪之天的刑罚;因此他们恳求准许他们往旷野——一个与世隔绝之地——走三天的路程,在那里献祭的礼仪既不致受打扰,也不致冒犯埃及人。他们如此说时,隐瞒了最终要离开这国的意图;先作此局部的请求,大概是想先探探君王的态度,然后再进一步表明心意。但他们所说的,不过是神所放在他们口中的话
(出 3:12, 18),
这「使这一具体行为合法化,却丝毫没有认可欺瞒的普遍习惯」[CHALMERS]。
英文原文
3. The God of the Hebrews hath met with us--Instead of being provoked into reproaches or threats, they mildly assured him that it was not a proposal originating among themselves, but a duty enjoined on them by their God. They had for a long series of years been debarred from the privilege of religious worship, and as there was reason to fear that a continued neglect of divine ordinances would draw down upon them the judgments of offended heaven, they begged permission to go three days' journey into the desert--a place of seclusion--where their sacrificial observances would neither suffer interruption nor give umbrage to the Egyptians. In saying this, they concealed their ultimate design of abandoning the kingdom, and by making this partial request at first, they probably wished to try the king's temper before they disclosed their intentions any farther. But they said only what God had put in their mouths
(Ex 3:12, 18),
and this "legalizes the specific act, while it gives no sanction to the general habit of dissimulation" [CHALMERS].
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4. 摩西、亚伦,你们为什么叫百姓旷工?,等等——他完全不理会他们所说的话,只把他们当作野心勃勃的煽动者,以为他们是在挑动百姓迷信的情绪,以煽动叛乱、散布不满的风气;这风气若在如此众多的奴隶中蔓延开来,可能危及国家的安宁。
英文原文
4. Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? &c.--Without taking any notice of what they had said, he treated them as ambitious demagogues, who were appealing to the superstitious feelings of the people, to stir up sedition and diffuse a spirit of discontent, which spreading through so vast a body of slaves, might endanger the peace of the country.
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6. 法老吩咐——这次会面所激起的强烈不悦,自然导致他给受压迫的以色列人加添更重的担子。
督工的——埃及的监工,被指派向以色列人索取劳役。
官长——希伯来人,在督工之下被派管理他们的弟兄,与今日埃及设阿拉伯官长管理阿拉伯农夫(即现代埃及的贫苦劳工)的情形完全相同。
英文原文
6. Pharaoh commanded--It was a natural consequence of the high displeasure created by this interview that he should put additional burdens on the oppressed Israelites.
taskmasters--Egyptian overseers, appointed to exact labor of the Israelites.
officers--Hebrews placed over their brethren, under the taskmasters, precisely analogous to the Arab officers set over the Arab Fellahs, the poor laborers in modern Egypt.
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7. 你们不可再将草给百姓做砖——造砖看来是政府的专利,因为古时的砖几乎都印有某王的名号;其制法正如今日下埃及一样,以掺入碎草的黏土在日光下晒干或硬化而成。以色列人就是从事这苦役;他们虽然仍住在歌珊,拥有牛羊等产业,却被轮流征发到砖窑中服劳役,分批被压榨,正如今日该国fellah(即农夫)被拉夫队征调的情形一样。
叫他们自己去捡草——这暴怒的暴君并没有下令行不可行的事。埃及的收割者在收割谷物时,惯于只割下穗子,让秆子留在田里。
英文原文
7. Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick--The making of bricks appears to have been a government monopoly as the ancient bricks are nearly all stamped with the name of a king, and they were formed, as they are still in Lower Egypt, of clay mixed with chopped straw and dried or hardened in the sun. The Israelites were employed in this drudgery; and though they still dwelt in Goshen and held property in flocks and herds, they were compelled in rotation to serve in the brick quarries, pressed in alternating groups, just as the fellaheen, or peasants, are marched by press gangs in the same country still.
let them go and gather straw for themselves--The enraged despot did not issue orders to do an impracticable thing. The Egyptian reapers in the corn harvest were accustomed merely to cut off the ears and leave the stalk standing.
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8. 数目——即所规定砖块的数目。他们劳作的材料不再供应,而每日却要交出同样数量的成品,再没有比这更严酷的残忍了——这是东方专制政治的完美标本。
英文原文
8. tale--an appointed number of bricks. The materials of their labor were to be no longer supplied, and yet, as the same amount of produce was exacted daily, it is impossible to imagine more aggravated cruelty--a perfect specimen of Oriental despotism.
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12. 于是百姓散在——这对劳工个人而言是极大的苦楚,但他们进入的田地的主人却不会阻拦,因为埃及几乎所有的土地都归王室所有
(创 47:20)。
英文原文
12. So the people were scattered--It was an immense grievance to the laborers individually, but there would be no hindrance from the husbandmen whose fields they entered, as almost all the lands of Egypt were in the possession of the crown
(Ge 47:20).
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13-19. 督工的催促说……官长……责打——因附近的田地已无秸秆可寻,百姓必须走更远去找,他们便无法按往常的数量如期交足砖。「官长之被责打,正合乎东方暴君的作风,尤其是在尼罗河一带;从纪念碑上可见,古埃及正如近代中国一样,主要以棍棒治国」[TAYLOR]。「责打的方式,是把犯者平放在地上,通常由人按住手脚,然后施行刑罚」[WILKINSON]
(申 25:2)。
在底比斯一座埃及坟墓中,曾发现一幅描绘希伯来人在砖窑劳作的图画,与本章所记完全吻合。
英文原文
13-19. And the taskmasters hasted them . . . officers . . . beaten--As the nearest fields were bared and the people had to go farther for stubble, it was impossible for them to meet the demand by the usual tale of bricks. "The beating of the officers is just what might have been expected from an Eastern tyrant, especially in the valley of the Nile, as it appears from the monuments, that ancient Egypt, like modern China, was principally governed by the stick" [TAYLOR]. "The mode of beating was by the offender being laid flat on the ground and generally held by the hands and feet while the chastisement was administered" [WILKINSON].
(De 25:2).
A picture representing the Hebrews on a brick field, exactly as described in this chapter, was found in an Egyptian tomb at Thebes.
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20、21. 他们遇见摩西……愿耶和华鉴察你们,施行审判——如此,以色列的拯救者发现,这出于爱国的干预,起先只是加重了他所要消除的祸患;他非但没有得到感激,反而被同胞的责难所压。然而正如最深的黑暗总在黎明之前,神的百姓往往在得拯救的前夕陷入极深的苦难;这次也是如此。
英文原文
20, 21. they met Moses . . . The Lord look upon you, and judge--Thus the deliverer of Israel found that this patriotic interference did, in the first instance, only aggravate the evil he wished to remove, and that instead of receiving the gratitude, he was loaded with the reproaches of his countrymen. But as the greatest darkness is immediately before the dawn, so the people of God are often plunged into the deepest affliction when on the eve of their deliverance; and so it was in this case.
出埃及记 5:1-23.
初次 会见 法老
1. 摩西、亚伦进去——作为希伯来人的代表,他们有权要求觐见君王,而他们在埃及所受的全面训练,也使他们懂得如何、何时寻求这样的机会。
对法老说——他们被引见之后,便奉以色列神的名传达信息。这是《圣经》中首次以此民族名称呼神。这似乎是出于神的指示
(出 4:2),
为的是在希伯来人受压制之时,赐给他们尊荣
(来 11:16)。