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Jeremiah 1 This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar, king of 当巴比伦王拿步高与自己所有的军队，及他手下统治的天下各国和一切民族，前来进攻耶路撒冷和她所有的城镇时，有上主的话传给耶肋米亚说： 2 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go to Zedekiah, king of “上主以色列的天主这样说：你去对犹大王漆德克雅说，告诉他上主这样说：看，我必将这城交在巴比伦王手中，他将放火烧城， 3 Neither shall you escape his hand; rather you will be captured and fall into his hands. You shall see the king of 4 But if you obey the word of the LORD, Zedekiah, king of 但是，犹大王漆德克雅！请听上主的话，上主论你这样说：你决不会死在刀下， 5 You shall die in peace, and they will lament you as their lord, and burn spices for your burial as they did for your fathers, the kings who preceded you from the first; it is I who make this promise, says the LORD. 必要平安死去；正如有人给在你以前的上代祖先君王焚香，同样也有人给你焚香，向你致哀；‘噫嘻，我主！’的确，是我说了这话──上主的断语”。 6 The prophet Jeremiah told all these things to Zedekiah, king of 耶肋米亚先知就在耶路撒冷，对犹大君王漆德克雅说了这一切话， 7 1 while the armies of the king of Babylon were attacking Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah, since these alone were left of the fortified cities of Judah. 那时巴比伦王的军队正在攻打耶路撒冷和犹大所余的城市，攻打拉基士和阿则卡，因为在犹大城市中，只剩下了这两座设防的城市。 8 2 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in Jerusalem to issue an edict of emancipation. 漆德克雅王与当时在耶路撒冷的全体人民订约，要对奴婢宣布自由以后，有上主的话传给耶肋米亚： 9 Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold a man of Judah, his brother, in slavery. 每人应释放自己的希伯来奴婢，使他们获享自由；谁也不该再以自己的弟兄犹大人作奴婢。 10 All the princes and the others who entered the agreement consented to set free their male and female servants, so that they should be slaves no longer. But though they agreed and freed them, 所有入盟的首长和全体人民都同意，每人要释放自己的奴婢，使他们获享自由，不再以他们为奴婢：他们同意了，也释放了。 11 afterward they took back their male and female slaves whom they had set free and again forced them into service. 但是，后来他们改变主意，把他们释放恢复自由的奴婢，再叫回来，强迫他们再作奴婢。 12 Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: The day I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place where they were slaves, I made this covenant with them: “上主以色列的天主这样说：在我领你们的祖先，由埃及地，奴隶之所，出来的那一天，与他们订立了盟约说： 14 Every seventh year each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you; six years he shall serve you, but then you shall let him go free. Your fathers, however, did not heed me or obey me. 每七年初，你们应各自释放卖身给你的希伯来弟兄：他服事了你六年，你应该让他自由离去。你们的祖先却不听，也不向我侧耳。 15 Today you indeed repented and did what is right in my eyes by proclaiming the emancipation of your brethren and making an agreement before me in the house that is named after me. 今日你们自己反悔，作了我认为正直的事，各向自己的近人宣布自由，在归我名下的殿里，当着我面订了盟约。 16 But then you changed your mind and profaned my name by taking back your male and female slaves to whom you had given their freedom; you forced them once more into slavery. 但事后却变了主意，亵渎我名，竟再召回自己已经释放，身获自由的奴婢，迫使他们再做你们的奴婢。 17 Therefore, thus says the LORD: You did not obey me by proclaiming your neighbors and kinsmen free. I now proclaim you free, says the LORD, for the sword, famine, and pestilence. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 为此上主这样说：你们既不听从我，各向自己的弟兄，各向自己的近人宣布自由，看，我来对你们宣布释放刀剑和瘟疫及饥荒的自由──上主的断语──使你们成为地上一切王国惊慌恐怖的对象。 18 3 The men who violated my covenant and did not observe the terms of the agreement which they made before me, I will make like the calf which they cut in two, between whose two parts they passed. 凡违犯我盟约，即凡不履行剖开牛犊，由两半中间走过，在我面前所立的盟约誓词的人，我必将他们交出： 19 The princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the courtiers, the priests, and the common people, who passed between the parts of the calf, 20 I will hand over, all of them, to their enemies, to those who seek their lives: their corpses shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. 我必将他们悉数交在他们的敌人，和图谋他们性命者的手中，使他们的尸首成为天上飞鸟和地上走兽的食物。 21 Zedekiah, too, king of Judah, and his princes, I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, to the soldiers of the king of Babylon who have at present withdrawn from you. 至于犹大王漆德克雅和他的臣相，我也将他们交在他们敌人的手中，交在图谋他们性命者的手中，交在由你们面前撤退的巴比伦王军队的手中。 22 I will give the command, says the LORD, and bring them back to this city. They shall attack and capture it, and destroy it with fire; the cities of Judah I will turn into a desert where no man dwells. 我必下令──上主的断语──叫他们再回来，进攻，占领，火烧这城市；至于犹大的其它城市，我必使它们化为无人居住的荒野”。 Footnotes（注解） 1 [7] Lachish and Azekah: fortress towns to the southwest of Jerusalem which Nebuchadnezzar besieged to prevent help coming to Jerusalem from Egypt. Between 1935 and 1938, archaeologists found at Lachish several letters written on pottery fragments which date from 598 or 588 B.C., and which mention both Lachish and Azekah. 2 [8-22] While the Chaldean siege of Jerusalem was in progress, the citizens of Jerusalem made a covenant at Zedekiah's instigation to free their brother Judeans who were in slavery. Doubtless this was both to provide additional free defenders for the city and to offer reparation for past violations of the law, according to which Hebrew slaves were to serve no longer than six years (Deut 15:12-15). But when the siege was temporarily lifted, probably because of the help promised by Pharaoh Hophra (cf Jeremiah 37:5), the inhabitants of Jerusalem broke the covenant and once more pressed their brethren into slavery (Jeremiah 34:11). 3 [18-19] As the Bible (Genesis 15:10-17) and also contemporary inscriptions make clear, agreements were sometimes ratified by walking between the divided pieces of animals while the contracting parties invoked on themselves a fate similar to that of the slaughtered beast if they should fail to keep their word. The agreement: that mentioned in Jeremiah 34:10, 15. |
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