9　摩西

犹太人民领袖摩西的故事

公元前2000年，闪族牧人中一支微不足道的小部落，离开了旧日的家乡，即幼发拉底河口的吾珥地区。他们想在巴比伦国王的领土上找到新牧场，却被王家士兵赶走。他们向西前行，想寻找一块未被占领的土地，在那里搭建自己的帐篷。

这支牧人部落被称为希伯来人，也就是我们所说的犹太人。他们不停地游走，经过多年枯燥的旅行，终于在埃及找到了栖身之所。他们和埃及人一起生活了500多年。当收留他们的国家遭遇希克索斯的侵略时（正如我在埃及故事中所介绍的），他们作了外来侵略者的爪牙，所以他们能继续留在牧场而不被侵犯。但是经过长期的争取独立的战争，埃及人最终把希克索斯人赶出了尼罗河谷。从此犹太人遭遇了悲惨的境遇，他们沦为卑微的奴隶，必须去修建皇家大道和金字塔。他们想逃跑是不可能的，因为各个边界都有埃及士兵把守。

这样忍受了许多年后，一位叫摩西的犹太年轻人把他们从悲惨的命运中解救了出来。摩西长年住在沙漠，体会到远古祖先的质朴美德：远离城市和城市的生活，

After many years of suffering they were saved from their miserable fate by a young Jew, called Moses, who for a long time had dwelt in the desert and there had learned to appreciate the simple virtues of his earliest ancestors, who had kept away from cities and city-life and had refused to let themselves be corrupted by the ease and the luxury of a foreign civilisation.

Moses decided to bring his people back to a love of the ways of the patriarchs. He succeeded in evading the Egyptian troops that were sent after him and led his fellow tribesmen into the heart of the plain at the foot of Mount Sinai.During his long and lonely life in the desert, he had learned to revere the strength of the great God of the Thunder and the Storm, who ruled the high heavens and upon whom the shepherds depended for life and light and breath. This God, one of the many divinities who were widely worshipped in western Asia, was called Jehovah, and through the teaching of Moses, he became the sole Master of the Hebrew race.

One day, Moses disappeared from the camp of the Jews. It was whispered that he had gone away carrying two tablets of rough-hewn stone. That afternoon, the top of the mountain was lost to sight. The darkness of a terrible storm hid it from the eye of man. But when Moses returned, behold!there stood engraved upon the tablets the words which Jehovah had spoken unto the people of Israel amidst

犹太人的流浪

摩西看到了圣地

不受外来文明那种安逸奢华的侵蚀。

摩西决心带领他的民众回归祖先的生活方式。他带领犹太人成功地避开了追来的埃及军队，把族人引到西奈山脚下平原的中心地带。曾经孤独而漫长的沙漠生活，使他明白了要敬畏雷雨之神的力量。因为这位神统治着上天，牧民每天的生活像阳光和呼吸等重要事项都要依靠他。这位神是广受西亚人敬仰的众神之一，尊号为耶和华。经过摩西的传教，耶和华成为希伯来民族的唯一主宰。

一天，摩西从犹太人的营地消失。大家私下议论

the crash of his thunder and the blinding flashes of his lightning. And from that moment, Jehovah was recognised by all the Jews as the Highest Master of their Fate, the only True God, who had taught them how to live holy lives when he bade them to follow the wise lessons of his Ten Commandments.

They followed Moses when he bade them continue their journey through the desert. They obeyed him when he told them what to eat and drink and what to avoid that they might keep well in the hot climate. And finally after many years of wandering they came to a land which seemed pleasant and prosperous. It was called Palestine, which means the country of the “Pilistu” the Philistines, a small tribe of Cretans who had settled along the coast after they had been driven away from their own island. Unfortunately, the mainland, Palestine, was already inhabited by another Semitic race, called the Canaanites. But the Jews forced their way into the valleys and built themselves cities and constructed a mighty temple in a town which they named Jerusalem, the Home of Peace.

As for Moses, he was no longer the leader of his people. He had been allowed to see the mountain ridges of Palestine from afar. Then be had closed his tired eyes for all time. He had worked faithfully and hard to please Jehovah. Not only had he guided his brethren out of foreign slavery into the free and independent life of a new home but he had also made the Jews the first of all nations to worship a single God.

说，他离开的时候带走了两块粗凿的石板。那天下午，一阵可怕的暴风雨遮住了山顶。但是摩西回来的时候，看啊，石板上刻着什么？那是耶和华在电闪雷鸣之中对以色列子民说的话。从那以后，耶和华被所有犹太人当作生命中最高主宰和唯一的真神。耶和华教人们过圣洁的生活，命令他们遵从“十诫”的教诲。

摩西告诉人们继续在沙漠中游走，他们听从了；摩西告诉人们吃什么、喝什么、避免什么，才能在炎热的天气里保持健康，他们也听从了。经过长年的流浪，他们终于来到一个看似美丽富饶的地方，那就是巴勒斯坦，意思是菲利斯坦人的国家。菲利斯坦人是来自克里特岛的一支小部落，自从被赶出自己的岛屿后，就一直居住在海岸边。不幸的是，巴勒斯坦大陆已经有另一支叫迦南人的闪族部落居住。但是犹太人强行进入谷地，在一个叫耶路撒冷（意思是“和平之家”）的小镇建设自己的城市，还建了一座大神庙。

至于摩西，他不再是犹太人民的领袖。他只能在遥望巴勒斯坦山脉后永远闭上了眼睛。他一生忠实而尽心地供奉着耶和华。他不仅带领同胞摆脱了外邦的奴役，过上独立自由的新生活，而且让犹太人成为第一个只崇拜唯一神的民族。