2 Samuel 1 When Joab, son of Zeruiah, observed how the king felt toward Absalom, 责鲁雅的儿子约阿布看透了君王怀念阿贝沙隆的心, 2 he sent to Tekoa and brought from there a gifted woman, to whom he said: "Pretend to be in mourning. Put on mourning apparel and do not anoint yourself with oil, that you may appear to be a woman who has been long in mourning for a departed one. 就派人到特科亚去,从那里叫来一位明智的妇人,对她说:"请妳装作一个居丧的妇人,穿上丧服,别抹油,像一个为死者居丧很久的妇人, 3 Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner." And Joab instructed her what to say. 然后去见君王,对他这样这样说 "约阿布就把要说的话,口授给她。 4 So the woman of Tekoa went to the king and fell prostrate to the ground in homage, saying, "Help, your majesty!" 科特亚的妇人一来到君王前,便俯伏在地,叩拜喊说:"大王,救命!" 5 The king said to her, "What do you want?" She replied: "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. 君王对她说:"妳有什么事?"她答说:"哎!我是个寡妇,我的丈夫死了。 6 Your servant had two sons, who quarreled in the field. There being no one to part them, one of them struck his brother and killed him. 你的婢女有两个儿子,他们俩在田野里争斗,无人解劝,彼此对打,竟将一个打死了。 7 1 Then the whole clan confronted your servant and demanded: ‘Give up the one who killed his brother. We must put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has slain; we must extinguish the heir also.' Thus they will quench my remaining hope and leave my husband neither name nor posterity upon the earth." 全族的人都起来反对你的婢女说:将那打死自己兄弟的交出来,让我们杀了他,抵偿他所杀的兄弟的命,既便是后嗣,我们也要消灭。这样,他们连我所剩下的一星之火,也要熄灭,不让我的丈夫在世上留名,或者留后"。 8 The king then said to the woman: "Go home. I will issue a command on your behalf." 君王对妇人说:"妳回家去吧!我会为妳下令查办"。 9 The woman of Tekoa answered him, "Let me and my family be to blame, my lord king; you and your throne are innocent." 特科亚的妇人立即对君王说:"我主,大王!愿此罪归于我及我父家,与大王,与陛下无干"。 10 Then the king said, "If anyone says a word to you, have him brought to me, and he shall not touch you again." 君王说:"凡向妳再出言恐吓的,你把他带到我这里来,谁也不敢再麻烦妳了"。 11 But she went on to say, "Please, your majesty, keep in mind the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood may not go too far in destruction and that my son may not be done away with." He replied, "As the LORD lives, not a hair of your son shall fall to the ground." 她继续说:"望大王提及上主你的天主名,不许报复血仇的人再从事破坏,不将我的儿子消灭"。他答说:"我指着永生的上主起誓:妳儿子的一根头发,也决不会落在地上"。 12 The woman continued, "Please let your servant say still another word to my lord the king." He replied, "Speak." 妇人接着说:"望我主大王,许你的婢女再进一言!"他答说:"说吧!" 13 So the woman said: "Why, then, do you think of this same kind of thing against the people of God? In pronouncing as he has, the king shows himself guilty, for not bringing back his own banished son. 妇人说:"为什么大王想出这样的事来,反对天主的百姓。君王说出这话,若不将自己放逐的人召回来,就不免有罪了! 14 2 We must indeed die; we are then like water that is poured out on the ground and cannot be gathered up. Yet, though God does not bring back life, he does take thought how not to banish anyone from him. 我们原来都该死,如同泼在地,上的水,不能再收回,天主也不再给人生命;所以大王要设法不使那放逐的人,成为一个永不能再回家的人。 15 And now, if I have presumed to speak of this matter to your majesty, it is because the people have given me cause to fear. And so your servant thought: 'Let me speak to the king. Perhaps he will grant the petition of his maidservant. 我现今到这里来,向我主大王提及此事,是因为有些人恐吓我,为此你的婢女想:我得向君王说明,也许君王会实践他婢女的请求。 16 For the king must surely consent to free his servant from the grasp of one who would seek to destroy me and my son as well from God's inheritance.'" 因为大王必会听从我,从那由天主产业中铲除我和我儿子之人的手中,救出自己的婢女来。 17 3 And the woman concluded: "Let the word of my lord the king provide a resting place; indeed, my lord the king is like an angel of God, evaluating good and bad. The LORD your God be with you." 所以你的婢女说:我主大王的话,实能安慰人心,因为我主大王对于分辨善恶,实如同天主的使者。望上主你的天主,与你同在!" 18 The king answered the woman, "Now do not conceal from me anything I may ask you!" The woman said, "Let my lord the king speak." 君王回答妇人说:"我有一事问妳,妳可不要对我隐瞒"。妇人答说:"我主大王,请说!" 19 So the king asked, "Is Joab involved with you in all this?" And the woman answered: "As you live, my lord the king, it is just as your majesty has said, and not otherwise. It was your servant Joab who instructed me and told your servant all these things she was to say. 君王问说:"在这一切事上,是不是约阿布的手在妳后面?"妇人答说:"我大王万岁!我主君王所说的,丝毫不差,正是你的仆人约阿布吩咐了我,是他将这一切话,口授给你的婢女。 20 Your servant Joab did this to come at the issue in a roundabout way. But my lord is as wise as an angel of God, so that he knows all things on earth." 使事实改变真相的,确是你的仆人约阿布所做的;但是我主贤明,贤明得如同天主的使者,晓得地上所有的事"。 21 Then the king said to Joab: "I hereby grant this request. Go, therefore, and bring back young Absalom." 王便对约阿布说:"好,现在我就履行此事,召回孩子阿贝沙隆来!" 22 Falling prostrate to the ground in homage and blessing the king, Joab said, "This day I know that I am in good favor with you, my lord the king, since the king has granted the request of his servant." 约阿布就俯首至地,叩拜祝福君王,随后说:"我主大王,今日你的仆人知道,我在你眼前获得了宠幸,因为大王实践了他仆人的请求"。 23 Joab then went off to Geshur and brought Absalom to 约阿布就起身,往革叔尔去,将阿贝沙隆领回耶路撒冷。 24 But the king said, "Let him go to his own house; he shall not appear before me." So Absalom went off to his house and did not appear before the king. 君王说:"叫他回自己家里去罢!不要让他来见我"。于是阿贝沙隆回到自己家里,没有见君王的面。 25 In all 在全以色列民中,没有一人像阿贝沙隆那样英俊,堪受赞美的,在他身上,自踵至顶,没有一点缺陷。 26 When he shaved his head--which he used to do at the end of every year, because his hair became too heavy for him--the hair weighed two hundred shekels according to the royal standard. 他剪发以后,──他每年年底剪发一次,因为头上积发太多,他必须剪去,──称了称剪的头发,依王家的衡制,重二百"协刻耳"。 27 Absalom had three sons born to him, besides a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman. 阿贝沙隆有三个儿子,一个女儿;女儿名叫塔玛尔,是个容貌很美丽的女子。 28 Absalom lived in 阿贝沙隆在耶路撒冷住了两年,仍未得见君王的面。 29 Then he summoned Joab to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. Although he summoned him a second time, Joab refused to come. 阿贝沙隆遂派人到约阿布那里,求他引自己去见君王。但是,约阿布不愿到他那里去,他又派人去,他仍是不肯来。 30 He therefore instructed his servants: "You see Joab's field that borders mine, on which he has barley. Go, set it on fire." And so Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Joab's farmhands came to him with torn garments and reported to him what had been done. 他于是对自己的仆人说:"你们看,约阿布的庄田与我的相接,他在那里种了大麦,你们去放火烧田"。阿贝沙隆的仆人于是放火烧了田。 31 At this, Joab went to Absalom in his house and asked him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?" 约阿布就起身来到阿贝沙隆的家里,对他说:"你的仆人为什么烧了我的田?" 32 Absalom answered Joab: "I was summoning you to come here, that I may send you to the king to say: 'Why did I come back from Geshur? I would be better off if I were still there!' Now, let me appear before the king. If I am guilty, let him put me to death." 阿贝沙隆回答约阿布说:"看,我派人到你那里说:请你到我这里来,我愿派你去见君王,问他为什么叫我从革叔尔回来?假如我仍留在那里,为我岂不更好?!如今我愿见君王的面,我若有罪,他可杀我!" 33 Joab went to the king and reported this. The king then called Absalom, who came to him and in homage fell on his face to the ground before the king. Then the king kissed him. 约阿布便去见君王,禀告了这些话。王遂召见阿贝沙隆;他来到君王前,俯首至地,叩拜君王;君王就吻了阿贝沙隆。 Footnotes(注解) 1 [7] Hope: literally, "glowing coal." The image is similar to that of the lighted lamp, e.g., Psalm 89:17 to keep alive the ancestral name. 2 [14] How not to banish: a possible allusion to the religious institution of cities of refuge for involuntary murderers; see Numbers 35:9-15 3 [17] A resting place: cf Psalm 95:11; Hebrews 3:7-4, 11. The reference here is to a return home for Absalom to |