Genesis 1 Jacob learned that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and he has accumulated all this wealth of his by using our father's property." 雅各伯听见拉班的儿子们谈论说:"雅各伯夺去了我们父亲所有的一切,利用我们父亲的财物,才获得了这一切的财富。" 2 Jacob perceived, too, that Laban's attitude toward him was not what it had previously been. 3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, where you were born, and I will be with you." 那时,上主对雅各伯说:"你回到你的家乡和你的出生地,我必与你同在。" 4 So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to meet him where he was in the field with his flock. 雅各伯就派人叫辣黑耳和肋阿来到放羊的田间, 5 There he said to them: "I have noticed that your father's attitude toward me is not as it was in the past; but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You well know what effort I put into serving your father; 7 yet your father cheated me and changed my wages time after time. God, however, did not let him do me any harm. 你们的父亲却欺骗了我,十次变换了我的工价,但天主却没有容许他害我。 8 1 Whenever your father said, ‘The speckled animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear speckled young; whenever he said, ‘The streaked animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear streaked young. 当他说:有斑点的算是你的工价;全羊群就都生下有斑点的;当他说:有条纹的算是你的工价,全羊群就都生下有条纹的。 9 Thus God reclaimed your father's livestock and gave it to me. 10 Once, in the breeding season, I had a dream in which I saw mating he-goats that were streaked, speckled and mottled. 有一次当羊群配合时,我于梦中举目观望:看见跳在母羊身上的公山羊,都是有条纹,有斑点和杂色的。 11 In the dream God's messenger called to me,‘Jacob!'‘Here!' I replied. 天主的使者在梦中对我说:雅各伯!我答说:我在这里。 12 Then he said: ‘Note well. All the he-goats in the flock, as they mate, are streaked, speckled and mottled, for I have seen all the things that Laban has been doing to you. 他说:你举目观望:跳在母羊身上的公山羊,都是有条纹,有斑点和杂色的,因为我看到了拉班对你所作的一切。 13 I am the God who appeared to you in 14 Rachel and Leah answered him: "Have we still an heir's portion in our father's house? 15 2 Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? He not only sold us; he has even used up the money that he got for us! 他岂不是把我们视作外人,把我们出卖了,吞并了我们的身价? 16 All the wealth that God reclaimed from our father really belongs to us and our children. Therefore, do just as God has told you." 所以天主由我们父亲夺来的那一切财物,都应属于我们和我们子女。现今凡天主吩咐你的,你都该照办。 17 Jacob proceeded to put his children and wives on camels, 雅各伯遂立即叫自己的儿女和妻子骑上骆驼, 18 and he drove off with all his livestock and all the property he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the 带了自己一切牲畜和积聚的一切财物,即他在帕丹阿兰所得的一切牲畜,起程往客纳罕地,他父亲依撒格那里去了。 19 3 Now Laban had gone away to shear his sheep, and Rachel had meanwhile appropriated her father's household idols. 20 4 Jacob had hoodwinked Laban the Aramean by not telling him of his intended flight. 21 Thus he made his escape with all that he had. Once he was across the Euphrates, he headed for the highlands of 遂带了自己所有的一切逃走了,起身过了幼发拉的河,直向基肋阿得山地进发。 22 On the third day, word came to Laban that Jacob had fled. 第三天拉班得报雅各伯偷跑了, 23 5 Taking his kinsmen with him, he pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of 24 But that night God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, "Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!" 25 When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob's tents were pitched in the highlands; Laban also pitched his tents there, on 26 6 "What do you mean," Laban demanded of Jacob, "by hoodwinking me and carrying off my daughters like war captives? 27 Why did you dupe me by stealing away secretly? You should have told me, and I would have sent you off with merry singing to the sound of tambourines and harps. 你为什么暗中偷跑,瞒着我而不通知我,叫我好能快乐的唱着歌,打着鼓,弹着琴欢送你回去? 28 You did not even allow me a parting kiss to my daughters and grandchildren! What you have now done is a senseless thing. 29 I have it in my power to harm all of you; but last night the God of your father said to me,‘Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!' 我本可伸手加害你们,但是你们父亲的天主昨夜对我说:小心,不要对雅各伯说好说坏。 30 Granted that you had to leave because you were desperately homesick for your father's house, why did you steal my gods?" 你现在切望回到父家,定要回去,但是你为什么偷走了我的神像!" 31 "I was frightened," Jacob replied to Laban, "at the thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force. 32 But as for your gods, the one you find them with shall not remain alive! If, with my kinsmen looking on, you identify anything here as belonging to you, take it." Jacob, of course, had no idea that Rachel had stolen the idols. 至于你的神像,你在谁那里搜出来,决不容他活着;当着我们弟兄的面,你如认出我这里有什么是属于你的,尽管拿去。"雅各伯原不知道是辣黑耳偷了神像。 33 Laban then went in and searched Jacob's tent and Leah's tent, as well as the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find the idols. Leaving Leah's tent, he went into Rachel's. 34 Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them inside a camel cushion, and seated herself upon them. When Laban had rummaged through the rest of her tent without finding them, 辣黑耳却拿了神像,放在骆驼的鞍下,自己坐在上面。拉班搜遍了整个帐幕,没有找着。 35 Rachel said to her father, "Let not my lord feel offended that I cannot rise in your presence; a woman's period is upon me." So, despite his search, he did not find his idols. 辣黑耳对她父亲说:"望我主不要见怪,我不能在你面前起迎,因为我正在经期。"他搜索了,却没有找着神像。 36 Jacob, now enraged, upbraided Laban. "What crime or offense have I committed," he demanded, "that you should hound me so fiercely? 37 Now that you have ransacked all my things, have you found a single object taken from your belongings? If so, produce it here before your kinsmen and mine, and let them decide between us two. 你搜遍了我的东西,如找出了什么东西是属于你家的,摆在我和你的兄弟面前,叫他们在我们两人间行裁判。 38 "In the twenty years that I was under you, no ewe or she-goat of yours ever miscarried, and I have never feasted on a ram of your flock. 这二十年来,我同你在一起,你的母绵羊和母山羊从未流产;你羊群中的公羊,我从未吃过; 39 7 I never brought you an animal torn by wild beasts; I made good the loss myself. You held me responsible for anything stolen by day or night. 被野兽撕裂的我从未给你带回,我自己赔偿了损失;不论是白天偷去的,或是黑夜偷去的,你都向我索取。 40 How often the scorching heat ravaged me by day, and the frost by night, while sleep fled from my eyes! 日间我受尽炎热,夜间受尽严寒,两眼无法入睡。在你家内这二十年,为了你的两个女儿,我服事了你十四年; 41 Of the twenty years that I have now spent in your household, I slaved fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, while you changed my wages time after time. 另六年是为了你的羊群,这期间你竟十次变更了我的工价。 42 If my ancestral God, the God of Abraham and the Awesome One of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would now have sent me away empty-handed. But God saw my plight and the fruits of my toil, and last night he gave judgment." 假若我父的天主,亚巴郎的天主,依撒格所敬畏的上主,不同我在一起,你现在定会打发我空手回去;但是天主见到了我的苦况和我的辛苦,在昨夜就下了判决。" 43 8 Laban replied to Jacob: "The women are mine, their children are mine, and the flocks are mine; everything you see belongs to me. But since these women are my daughters, I will now do something for them and for the children they have borne. 拉班回答雅各伯说:"女儿是我的女儿,孩子是我的孩子,羊群是我的羊群,你眼见的这一切都是我的。但是对我的女儿,对她们生的孩子,我今天能作什么呢? 44 Come, then, we will make a pact, you and I; the LORD shall be a witness between us." 45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone. 46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather some stones." So they got some stones and made a mound; and they had a meal there at the mound. 然后对自己的亲戚说:"你们堆集石头。"他们便拿了石头,堆成一堆,就在那堆石头上吃了饭。 47 9 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed. 48 "This mound," said Laban, "shall be a witness from now on between you and me." That is why it was named Galeed-- 49 10 and also Mizpah, for he said: "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight. 又叫作"米兹帕,"因为他说:"我们彼此分离后,愿上主监视我和你: 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or take other wives besides my daughters, remember that even though no one else is about, God will be witness between you and me." 51 Laban said further to Jacob: "Here is this mound, and here is the memorial stone that I have set up between you and me. 52 This mound shall be witness, and this memorial stone shall be witness, that, with hostile intent, neither may I pass beyond this mound into your territory, nor may you pass beyond it into mine. 这堆石头是见证,这石柱是见证,我决不越过这堆石头去妨害你,你也不要越过这堆石头和这石柱来妨害我。 53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor (their ancestral deities) maintain justice between us!" Jacob took the oath by the Awesome One of Isaac. 但愿亚巴郎的天主和纳曷尔的天主,--即他们父亲的天主,--在我们之间行裁判!"雅各伯就指自己的父亲依撒格所敬畏的上主起了誓。 54 He then offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his kinsmen to share in the meal. When they had eaten, they passed the night on the mountain. 然后雅各伯在山上宰牲献祭,叫了自己的亲戚来吃饭;吃饭以后就在山上过了夜。 Footnotes〔注解〕 1 [8-12] This Elohist account of the miraculous increase in Jacob's flock differs somewhat from the Yahwist account given in Genesis 30:32-42. 2 [15] Outsiders: literally "foreign women"; they lacked the favored legal status of native women. Used up: literally "eaten, consumed"; the bridal price that a man received for giving his daughter in marriage was legally reserved as her inalienable dowry. 3 [19] Household idols: in Hebrew, teraphim, figurines used in divination (Ezekiel 21:26; Zechariah 10:2). Laban calls them his "gods" ?(Genesis 31:30). 4 [20] Hoodwinked: literally "stolen the heart of," i.e., lulled the mind of. Aramean: The earliest extra-biblical references to the Arameans date from several centuries after the time of Jacob; to call Laban an Aramean and to have him speak Aramaic (Genesis 31:47) would seem to be an anachronism. 5 [23] For seven days: literally "a way of seven days," a general term to designate a long distance; it would have taken a camel caravan many more days to travel from Haran to Gilead, the region east of the northern half of the Jordan. 6 [26] War captives: literally "women captured by the sword"; the women of a conquered people were treated as part of the victor's booty; cf 1 Sam 30:2; 2 Kings 5:2. 7 [39] Laban's actions were contrary to the customs of the ancient Near East, as recorded in the Code of Hammurabi: "If in a sheepfold an act of god has occurred, or a lion has made a kill, the shepherd shall clear himself before the deity, and the owner of the fold must accept the loss" (par. 266); cf Exodus 22:12. 8 [43-54] In this account of the treaty between Laban and Jacob, the Yahwist and Elohist sources are closely interwoven. The mound or cairn of stones comes from the Yahwist source, the memorial stone or stele comes from the Elohist one. 9 [47] Jegar-sahadutha: an Aramaic term meaning "mound of witness." Galeed: in Hebrew, galed, with the same meaning; also offers an explanation of the regional name 10 [49] Mizpah: a town in |