< 耶利米书 29 >
1 先知耶利米从耶路撒冷寄信与被掳的祭司、先知,和众民,并生存的长老,就是尼布甲尼撒从耶路撒冷掳到巴比伦去的。(
After King Jehoiachin, his mother, his palace officials, other officials in Judah, and all the various kinds of craftsmen [DOU] had been exiled to Babylon, I wrote a letter to the elders, the priests, the prophets and all the other people who had been taken from Jerusalem to Babylon by [soldiers of] Nebuchadnezzar.
2 这在耶哥尼雅王和太后、太监,并犹大、耶路撒冷的首领,以及工匠、铁匠都离了耶路撒冷以后。)
3 他借沙番的儿子以利亚萨和希勒家的儿子基玛利的手寄去。他们二人是犹大王西底家打发往巴比伦去见尼布甲尼撒王的。
[I gave] the letter to Elasah the son of Shaphan, and to Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, when they were about to go to Babylon to be ambassadors from King Zedekiah to King Nebuchadnezzar. This is what I wrote in the letter:
4 信上说:“万军之耶和华—以色列的 神对一切被掳去的(就是我使他们从耶路撒冷被掳到巴比伦的人)如此说:
This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says to all you people who were captured [here] in Jerusalem and taken [there] to Babylon:
5 你们要盖造房屋,住在其中;栽种田园,吃其中所产的;
“Build houses [there], and plan to stay there [because you will be there for many years]. Plant gardens, and eat the food that is produced in the gardens.
6 娶妻生儿女,为你们的儿子娶妻,使你们的女儿嫁人,生儿养女。在那里生养众多,不致减少。
Get married and have children. Then [when they grow up], choose wives for your sons, and husbands for your daughters, in order that they [also] may have children. [In that way], the number of you people will increase, not decrease.
7 我所使你们被掳到的那城,你们要为那城求平安,为那城祷告耶和华;因为那城得平安,你们也随着得平安。
Also, do things that will cause things to go well [for the other people there] in the city where I sent you. Pray that things will go well for [the people in] that city, because if things go well for them, things will go well for you, [also].”
8 万军之耶和华—以色列的 神如此说:不要被你们中间的先知和占卜的诱惑,也不要听信自己所做的梦;
This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israeli people [worship], says: “There are [false] prophets and fortune-tellers among you. Do not allow them to deceive you. Do not pay attention to [them when they tell you] their dreams,
9 因为他们托我的名对你们说假预言,我并没有差遣他们。这是耶和华说的。
because they are telling you lies, saying that [MTY] [I have given them the messages that they are telling you]. But, I have not appointed them.”
10 “耶和华如此说:为巴比伦所定的七十年满了以后,我要眷顾你们,向你们成就我的恩言,使你们仍回此地。
This is [also] what Yahweh says: “After you [and your children] have been in Babylon for seventy years, I will help you, and do for you the things that I promised, and I will enable you to return here [to Jerusalem].
11 耶和华说:我知道我向你们所怀的意念是赐平安的意念,不是降灾祸的意念,要叫你们末后有指望。
I, Yahweh, know what I have planned for you. I am planning to cause things to go well for you, not to cause you to experience disasters. I am planning to give you many things that you confidently expect to receive in the future.
At that time, when you pray, I will heed you.
If you earnestly desire for me [to bless you], you will experience me [blessing you].
14 耶和华说:我必被你们寻见,我也必使你们被掳的人归回,将你们从各国中和我所赶你们到的各处招聚了来,又将你们带回我使你们被掳掠离开的地方。这是耶和华说的。
I will make my help available to you [IDM]. I will cause you to no longer be slaves [in Babylon]. I will gather you from all the nations to which I have exiled you, and I will bring you back [here to your own land], to the place from which you were taken.”
15 “你们说:‘耶和华在巴比伦为我们兴起先知’;
[Some of] you say that Yahweh has appointed prophets for you [there] in Babylon.
16 所以耶和华论到坐大卫宝座的王和住在这城里的一切百姓,就是未曾与你们一同被掳的弟兄,
But this is what Yahweh says about the king who rules [here] in Jerusalem, and about all the other people who are [still] living here—your relatives who were not taken to Babylon with you.
17 万军之耶和华如此说:‘看哪,我必使刀剑、饥荒、瘟疫临到他们,使他们像极坏的无花果,坏得不可吃。
The Commander of the armies of angels says this: “I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases. I will cause them to become like [SIM] bad figs that are very rotten, with the result that no one can eat them.
18 我必用刀剑、饥荒、瘟疫追赶他们,使他们在天下万国抛来抛去,在我所赶他们到的各国中,令人咒诅、惊骇、嗤笑、羞辱。
I will not stop causing them to experience wars and famines and diseases. And I will scatter them all around the world. In every country where I (force them to be taken/exile them), I will cause them to be people whom [others] curse and be horrified about and make fun of [DOU].
19 耶和华说:这是因为他们没有听从我的话,就是我从早起来差遣我仆人众先知去说的,无奈他们不听。这是耶和华说的。
[That will happen] because they have refused to pay attention to my messages, messages that I gave to the prophets whom I sent to them. And you [who have been exiled to Babylon] have not paid attention to them, [either].” [That is what] Yahweh says.
20 所以你们一切被掳去的,就是我从耶路撒冷打发到巴比伦去的,当听耶和华的话。’”
[Therefore], you people who have been (exiled/forced to go) from Jerusalem to Babylon, listen to this message from Yahweh.
21 万军之耶和华—以色列的 神论到哥赖雅的儿子亚哈,并玛西雅的儿子西底家,如此说:“他们是托我名向你们说假预言的,我必将他们交在巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒的手中;他要在你们眼前杀害他们。
This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says about Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are telling lies to you, saying that they are giving messages [MTY] from him: “They will be seized and taken to [MTY] King Nebuchadnezzar, who will cause them to be executed while you are watching.
22 住巴比伦一切被掳的犹大人必借这二人赌咒说:‘愿耶和华使你像巴比伦王在火中烧的西底家和亚哈一样。’
Because of [what will happen to] them, all you people who have been taken from Judah to Babylon will say this when they curse someone: ‘I hope/wish that Yahweh will do to you the same thing that he did to Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the King of Babylon caused to be [killed by being] burned in a fire.’
23 这二人是在以色列中行了丑事,与邻舍的妻行淫,又假托我名说我未曾吩咐他们的话。知道的是我,作见证的也是我。这是耶和华说的。”
They have done terrible things to [my] Israeli people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken lies, saying that they were messages [MTY] from me. They have said things that I did not tell them to say, and I, Yahweh, have heard them [say those things].”
[Yahweh told me to] send this message to Shemaiah, a man from Nehelam [town who was living in Babylon]:
25 万军之耶和华—以色列的 神如此说:你曾用自己的名寄信给耶路撒冷的众民和祭司玛西雅的儿子西番雅,并众祭司,说:
This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says: “You wrote a letter that no one told you to write. You sent it to Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, and [you sent copies] to the other priests and all the [other] people here in Jerusalem. [This is what] you wrote to him:
26 ‘耶和华已经立你西番雅为祭司,代替祭司耶何耶大,使耶和华殿中有官长,好将一切狂妄自称为先知的人用枷枷住,用锁锁住。
[Zephaniah], Yahweh has appointed you to be the priest instead of Jehoiada, to supervise those who work in the temple. Anyone who acts like a crazy man and who claims that he is a prophet, you should put his arms and legs and head into (stocks/a wooden frame [so that he cannot move)].
27 现在亚拿突人耶利米向你们自称为先知,你们为何没有责备他呢?
So why have you not done anything to stop Jeremiah, the man from Anathoth [town], who [pretends that he] is a prophet among you?
28 因为他寄信给我们在巴比伦的人说:被掳的事必长久。你们要盖造房屋,住在其中;栽种田园,吃其中所产的。’”
He sent a letter to us [who are here] in Babylon, saying that [we will be here for] a long time. He said that [therefore] we should build houses and plan to stay here, and plant gardens, and eat the food that is produced in the gardens.”
[But when] Zephaniah the priest [received] the letter from you, he [brought it to me and] read it to me.
Then Yahweh gave me this message:
31 “你当寄信给一切被掳的人说:‘耶和华论到尼希兰人示玛雅说:因为示玛雅向你们说预言,我并没有差遣他,他使你们倚靠谎言;
“Send this message to all the people [from Judah] who are there [in Babylon]. Say that this is what Yahweh says about Shemaiah, the man from Nehelam: ‘I did not appoint him, but he has deceived you and caused you to believe the lies that he prophesied.
32 所以耶和华如此说:我必刑罚尼希兰人示玛雅和他的后裔,他必无一人存留住在这民中,也不得见我所要赐与我百姓的福乐,因为他向耶和华说了叛逆的话。这是耶和华说的。’”
So, I will punish him and his family. He has incited you to rebel against me. Because of that, all of his descendants will soon die. I will do [many] good things for [you], my people, but he and his descendants will not see those things, [because they will be dead]. [That will surely happen because I], Yahweh, have said it!’”