2 Maccabees:Chapter 8

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2 Maccabees:Chapter 8

瑪加伯(下)	2 Maccabees
¹猶大瑪加伯與他的同人暗暗走到各鄉村，向同族的人呼籲，把固守猶太教的人，集合起來，約有六千人。	¹Meanwhile, Judas, also called Maccabeus, and his companions, would enter secretly into the villages, call their relatives, summon those who had remained faithful to Judaism, and finally they assembled about six thousand men.
²他們懇求上主，垂顧為眾人蹂躪的民族，憐憫被惡人褻瀆的聖殿，	²They prayed to the Lord to turn his countenance on his people oppressed on all sides, to take pity on the Sanctuary profaned by impious men,
³憐恤已經毀壞且快夷為平地的京城，俯聽向他喊冤的血聲，	³to have compassion on the city - destroyed and on the point of being leveled - to listen to the cry of the blood reaching out to him;
⁴記念無罪嬰兒所遭的殘殺，並向咒罵他聖名的惡人發怒洩恨。	⁴and they asked that he not forget the unjust killing of innocent children and show his indignation against those who had insulted his Name.
⁵瑪加伯組成一支軍隊以後，外邦人就無法抵抗他，因為上主的義怒已經變成了憐憫。	⁵The Lord's anger turned into compassion, and as soon as Maccabeus had organized his troops, they became invincible against the pagans. Judas generally took advantage of the night for his military campaigns.
⁶他屢次在人不料想的時候，去襲擊城鎮，放火焚燒，佔據要塞，使敵人屢遭潰敗。	⁶So he attacked them by surprise, set cities and villages on fire, captured strategic positions, and put to flight many of the enemies.
⁷他為作戰順利，特別喜愛夜間進襲，因此他勇敢的聲譽傳遍各地。	⁷And people everywhere talked about him and his bravery.
⁸斐理伯見這人勢力漸漸強大，所作的事日漸成功，遂致書與切肋敘利亞和腓尼基的總督仆托肋米，請他援助國王的事務。	⁸When Philip saw that Judas was making progress little by little and his victories increased from day to day, he wrote to Ptolemy, the military commissioner of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, to come and help him under the king's service.
⁹他遂立時指派了帕托克羅的兒子尼加諾爾，君王的一個知心好友，帶領各國的聯軍，人數不下二萬，去消滅猶太民族；又派了一位富有作戰經驗的大將哥爾基雅援助他。	⁹Ptolemy at once appointed Nicanor, son of Patroclus, one of the king's first Friends, and sent him at the head of some twenty thousand men coming from all nations, with the order to wipe out all the Jews. At his side, he put Gorgias, a general of much experience in matters of war.
¹⁰尼加諾爾想出賣擄來的猶太人，好填補國王欠羅馬人的兩千「塔冷通」稅款。	¹⁰Nicanor intended to raise two thousand talents by the sale of Jewish slaves in order to pay for the tribute the king owed to the Romans.
¹¹於是立時派人到沿海各城市去，叫他們收買猶太奴隸，與他們約定每九十人一「塔冷通」，卻一點也不想全能者正要加於他的刑罰。	¹¹So he extended an invitation to all the coastal cities to come and buy slaves for a talent, without any regard for the punishment of the Almighty that might come upon him.
¹²有人將尼加諾爾進軍的消息報告給猶大，他就把敵軍進襲的消息告訴了他的部下。	¹²When Judas learned that Nicanor had come with a great army, he told his men about this.
¹³那些膽小的和不依恃上主公義的人，就逃到別的地方去了；	¹³So the cowardly and those who had no confidence in divine justice took to flight.
¹⁴其餘的人變賣了自己尚存的一切，一同祈求上主拯救那些在交戰以前，就被兇惡的尼加諾爾賣掉了的人們，	¹⁴Still others sold everything they owned and asked God to deliver from the impious Nicanor those who had been sold even before any battle.
¹⁵求主若不為了他們自己，至少為了與他們祖先立的盟約，為了在他們身上稱呼的可敬而偉大的聖名，拯救他們，	¹⁵They prayed that if the Lord would not save them because of their own merits, that at least out of consideration for the covenant he made with their fathers and for that great venerable Name with which he had blessed his people, he would do so.
¹⁶瑪加伯集合自己同人，約有六千，勸他們不要臨敵驚慌，不要怕那些無理襲擊他們的外方人數目眾多，只要勇敢作戰，	¹⁶Maccabeus gathered and reorganized his troops, numbering about six thousand, and exhorted them not to fear the enemy but to fight bravely against their unjust aggressors, despite their great number.
¹⁷把外方人無理加於聖所的褻瀆，京城遭受的凌辱與虐待，以及傳統制度遭受的破壞等事放在眼前。	¹⁷He reminded them how those men had profaned the Holy Place, slaughtered the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and removed their traditional institutions.
¹⁸繼而又說：「他們仗着武器和奮勇；至於我們，只應依靠全能的天主，他能轉瞬之間，擊倒攻打我們的敵人和整個世界。」	¹⁸He said to them, "They come with confidence in their weapons and their boldness, but we trust in the almighty God, who is able to wipe out in one stroke all who invade our land and even the whole world."
¹⁹瑪加伯還給他們引述了他們的祖先獲得的救助：在散乃黑黎布時，怎樣十八萬五千人一時同歸於盡；	¹⁹He recounted to them all the occasions when God had come to help their fathers, especially when he wiped out one hundred and eighty-five thousand men under Sennacherib.
²⁰在巴比倫與迦拉達人作戰時，來作戰的人共有八千，此外還有四千馬其頓人助戰。當馬其頓人陷於困境時，這八千人怎樣賴上天的助佑，消滅了十二萬敵人，並且還得了許多戰利品。	²⁰He also reminded them of what had happened in Babylonia, in the battle against the Galatians. On that day, eight thousand Jews fought side by side with four thousand Macedonians, and as the Macedonians were hard pressed, their Jewish allies alone killed twenty thousand of the enemies' troops with heaven's help and seized a great booty.
²¹用這番話激發起他們的勇氣，叫大家準備為法律和國家而犧牲；以後他就把軍隊分成四隊：	²¹Judas encouraged them with these words, and made them ready to die for their laws and country; then, he divided the army into four groups.
²²立自巳的兄弟息孟、若瑟和約納堂為每隊的隊長，叫他們各人率領一千五百人。	²²He assigned his brothers Simon, Joseph and Jonathan to each lead one division with fifteen hundred men in each.
²³此外，又令厄次辣誦讀聖經，然後立定「天主助佑」為口號；猶大就親自率領第一隊，進攻尼加諾爾：	²³He ordered that the Sacred Book be read, and he gave them their watchword "Help from God"; then, he himself led the first battalion, and fell on Nicanor.
²⁴因為全能者與他們一同作戰，擊殺了敵軍九千多人，使尼加諾爾的軍隊，大部份受了傷，成了殘廢，迫使剩下的都逃走了。	²⁴With the help of the Almighty they slaughtered nine thousand enemies, wounded and crippled many, and put the rest to flight.
²⁵來購買他們的人帶來的銀錢，也都奪回來，且追趕他們直至相當遠的路程；只因為時光有限，纔得趕回來，	²⁵They seized the money of those who had come to buy the Jews, and pursued them for a good while. But it was nearly evening,
²⁶因為那時正值安息日前夕，所以不能繼續追趕。	²⁶so they had to return because it was the vigil of the sabbath. That is why they stopped pursuing their enemies.
²⁷他們拾取敵人的武器，掠取他們的財物，以後就舉行安息日，全心稱謝讚頌上主，因為他今日開始把恩露灑在他們身上。	²⁷They gathered the weapons and the plunder of their enemies, and celebrated the sabbath on that day with praise and thanksgiving to God who had just saved them and had begun to show them his mercy.
²⁸過了安息日，他們便把一部份戰利品分贈給受害的人、孤兒和寡婦；剩下的，他們自己和子女分了。	²⁸After the sabbath, they divided part of the booty among those who had been tortured, the widows and the orphans; and they divided the rest among themselves and their men.
²⁹辦完這事，又共同祈禱，懇求仁慈的上主，完全與他的僕人們和好。	²⁹Having done this, they asked the Merciful Lord during a public prayer to be fully reconciled with his servants.
³⁰他們又與提摩太和巴基德的軍隊交戰，殺死了他們兩萬多人，並且也佔領了幾座很高大的堡壘，將獲得的無數戰利品，平均分為兩份：一份為他們自己，一份為受害的人、孤兒、寡婦和老人。	³⁰Then, in an encounter with the army of Timotheus and Bacchides, they killed more than twenty thousand men, and took control of the fortified cities. They divided the abundant plunder into equal shares among themselves, those who had been tortured, the orphans, the widows and the aged.
³¹又拾取了敵人的軍械，把這一切細心安放在適宜的地方，餘下的戰利品悉數運到耶路撒冷去。	³¹They carefully stored in safe places the weapons they had taken from the enemies, and brought the rest of the booty to Jerusalem.
³²又殺了提摩太部隊的一個軍長，這人非常暴虐無道，曾殘害過猶太人。	³²They killed the chief guard of Timotheus, an extremely wretched man who had done so much evil against the Jews.
³³當他們在祖國慶祝勝利時，將從前焚燒過聖殿的門，而如今與卡里斯特乃逃到一個小房裏的人，都用火燒死。如此，他們得了因行褻瀆應得的報應。	³³Then, as they celebrated their victory in Jerusalem, they burned alive those who had burned the temple gates, including Callisthenes who had taken refuge in one small house. So these men paid the price deserved for their impiety.
³⁴那曾帶一千商人來購買猶太人的萬惡的尼加諾爾，	³⁴The thrice-as-wretched Nicanor, who had brought thousands of merchants to buy the Jews,
³⁵如今，卻因上主賜給猶太人的救助，被他所最輕視的人們制服了。他脫去了自己耀武揚威的官服，似亡命之徒，獨自一人，跑過了曠野；在他全軍覆沒以後，他還能跑到安提約基雅去，這為他算是太幸運了。	³⁵found himself humbled with God's help by those same men he had despised before. Having discarded his splendid robe he fled across the country as a fugitive, and reached Antioch, very much relieved that he had not perished with his army.
³⁶曾負責以販賣耶路撒冷俘虜的價錢償還羅馬人的稅款的人，如今反倒聲明猶太人確實有一位保護者，若是猶太人遵從他立的法律，他們絕對不會受任何傷害。	³⁶He who had intended to pay the tribute owed to the Romans by selling the Jews, now affirmed that the Jews were invincible and invulnerable, and that Someone fought for them, provided they were obeying the laws prescribed by him.

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