第九章

　　Moses

　　摩西

　　The story of Moses, the leader of the Jewish people

　　犹太民族的领袖摩西的故事

　　Some time during the twentieth century before our era, a small and unimportant tribe of Semitic shepherds had left its old home, which was situated in the land of Ur on the mouth of the Euphrates, and had tried to find new pastures within the domain of the Kings of Babylonia. They had been driven away by the royal soldiers and they had moved westward looking for a little piece of unoccupied territory where they might set up their tents.

　　公元前2000年的某一天，一支小而不重要的闪米特游牧部落踏上了流浪的旅程。他们离开位于幼法拉底河口的旧家园乌尔，想在巴比伦国王的领土内找一块新的牧场。国王的士兵驱赶他们，他们不得不继续向西流浪，希望找到一块无主的土地，以便安营扎寨。

　　This tribe of shepherds was known as the Hebrews or, as we call them, the Jews. They had wandered far and wide, and after many years of dreary peregrinations they had been given shelter in Egypt. For more than five centuries they had dwelt among the Egyptians and when their adopted country had been overrun by the Hyksos marauders (as I told you in the story of Egypt) they had managed to make themselves useful to the foreign invader and had been left in the undisturbed possession of their grazing fields. But after a long war of independence the Egyptians had driven the Hyksos out of the valley of the Nile and then the Jews had come upon evil times for they had been degraded to the rank of common slaves and they had been forced to work on the royal roads and on the Pyramids. And as the frontiers were guarded by the Egyptian soldiers it had been impossible for the Jews to escape.

　　这支游牧部落被称为希伯来人，我们通常叫他们犹太人。他们辗转而行，经过长时间的悲惨漂泊之后，终于在埃及得到了一小块栖身之地。他们在埃及居住了500多年，一直与当地居民和睦相处。后来当接纳他们的国家被希克索斯人征服时（参见"埃及的故事"），他们转而竭力为外国侵略者效劳，总算使自己的牧场得以保全。经过长期的独立战争，埃及人将希克索斯人赶出了尼罗河谷。此时，犹太人的厄运临头了。他们被贬为奴隶，被迫在皇家大道和金字塔工地上像牛马一样干活。并且，由于边境上有埃及士兵的严密看守，犹太人根本不可能逃出埃及。