< 2 Chronicles 25 >
1 Amaziah was 25 years old when he became the king [of Judah], and he ruled from Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother was Jehoaddin; she was from Jerusalem.
[阿瑪責雅登極]阿瑪則雅登極時年二十五歲,在耶路撒冷作王凡二十九年;他的母親名叫約阿當,是耶路撒冷人。
2 Amaziah did many things that pleased Yahweh, but he did not do them enthusiastically.
他行了上主視為正義的事,只是心不專一。
3 As soon as he was in complete control of his kingdom, he caused to be executed the officials who had murdered his father.
及至王權已掌握在他手中之後,他將弒殺他父王的臣僕殺掉;
4 But he did not command their sons to be executed; he obeyed what was in the laws that Moses had written. In those laws Yahweh had commanded, “People must not be executed because of [what] their children [have done], and children must not be executed for [what] their parents [have done]. People must be executed only for the sins that they themselves have committed.”
但沒有將他們的子女處死,因為按梅瑟法律書上所載的,上主曾命令說:「不可為兒子的罪處死父親,亦不可為父親的罪處死兒子;每人應為自己的罪被處死刑。」[出征厄東]
5 Amaziah summoned the men of [the tribes of] Judah and Benjamin to come to Jerusalem, and there he put them in groups, each clan in a group by themselves. Then he appointed officers to command each group. Some officers commanded 100 men and some commanded 1,000 men. They counted the men who were at least 20 years old; altogether there were 300,000 men. They were all men who were prepared to be in the army, and able to [fight well, ] using spears and shields.
阿瑪責雅召集了猶大人,按他們的家族,為全猶大和本雅明安置了千夫長和百夫長,統計了人民,由二十歲及以上的,凡能操槍持盾,能出征上陣的精兵,共有三十萬;
6 Amaziah also hired 100,000 capable soldiers from Israel and paid almost four tons of silver for them.
又用一百「塔冷通」銀子,由以色列招募了十萬勇敢的戰士。
7 But a prophet came to him and said, “Your majesty, you must not allow those soldiers from Israel to march with your soldiers, because Yahweh does not help the people of the tribe of Ephraim or from [anywhere else in] Israel.
有天主的人前來見他,對他說:「請大王不要帶以色列軍隊與你同往,因為上主不與以色列,即厄弗辣因所有的子孫在一起。
8 Even if your soldiers go and fight courageously in battles, God will cause your enemies to defeat you; do not forget that God has the power to help armies or to cause them to be defeated.”
如果你以為這樣可以戰勝,天主必使你敗於敵人之前,因為天主有能力助人,亦有能力使人潰敗。」
9 Amaziah asked that prophet, “If I do that, what about the huge amount of silver that I paid to hire those soldiers from Israel?” The prophet replied, “Yahweh is able to pay you back more money than you paid [to hire those soldiers].”
阿瑪責雅問天主的人說:「我已給了以色列僱傭兵一百「塔冷通」銀子,那怎麼辦呢﹖」天主的人回答說:「上主能將比這更多的賜給你。」
10 So Amaziah told those soldiers from Israel to return home. They left to go home, but they were very angry with the king of Judah [for not allowing them to stay and fight].
阿瑪責雅於是將從厄弗辣因來的僱傭兵分出來,遣返回家;因此他們非常懷恨猶大人,憤憤地回了家。
11 Then Amaziah became brave, and he led his army to the Salt Valley. There they killed 10,000 men from the Edom people-group.
阿瑪責雅鼓起勇氣,率領自己的軍隊來到鹽谷,擊殺了一萬色依爾人。
12 The army of Judah also captured 10,000 others, and took them to the top of a cliff and threw them all down over the cliff, with the result that their corpses were all smashed to pieces.
猶大子民又生擒了一萬,帶到石崖頂上,由石崖頂上將他們推下去,都摔得支離破碎。
13 While that was happening, the soldiers from Israel whom Amaziah had sent home after not allowing them to fight along with his soldiers, raided cities and towns in Judea, from Samaria [city] to Beth-Horon [town]. They killed 3,000 people and took away a great amount of valuable things.
但是,那些被阿瑪責雅遣回,不准一同出征的僱傭兵,卻侵入猶大各城,由撒瑪黎雅直到貝特曷龍,擊殺了三千人,掠去了許多財物。[ 阿瑪責雅敬拜偶像]
14 When Amaziah returned [to Jerusalem] after his army had slaughtered the soldiers from Edom, he brought the idols that were worshiped by the people of Edom. He set them up to be his own gods. Then he bowed down to [worship] them and offered sacrifices to them.
阿瑪責雅打敗厄東人回來時,也將色依爾子民的神像帶回來,立為自己的神,在他們前焚香頂禮;
15 Because of that, Yahweh was very angry with Amaziah. He sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you worship these foreign gods that were not even able to save their own people when your army attacked them?”
因為上主向阿瑪責雅發怒,派一位先知去見他,對他說:「這個民族的神未能拯救自己的百姓脫離你的手,你為什麼還求他們呢﹖」
16 While he was still speaking, the king said to him, “We certainly did not appoint you to be one of my advisors. So stop [talking]! If you say anything more, [I will tell my soldiers to] kill you!” So the prophet said, “I know that God has determined to get rid of you, because you have [begun to] worship idols, and have not heeded my advice.” Then the prophet said nothing more.
先知正與君王說話時,君王對他說:「莫非我們立了你作君王的謀士﹖不必再說! 你為什麼來尋死呢﹖」先知便止住了,只聲明說:「我知道天主已決意要消滅你,因為你作了這事,還不聽從我的勸誡。」[猶大向以色列挑戰]
17 Some time later Amaziah, the king of Judah, consulted his advisors. Then he sent a message to Jehoash, the king of Israel. He wrote, “Come here and let’s talk together.”
猶大王阿瑪責雅聚議以後,便派人到以色列王耶胡的孫子,約阿哈次的兒子耶曷阿士那裏去說:「來,讓我們見個高低! 」
18 But Jehoash replied to King Amaziah, “One time a thistle growing [in the mountains] in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar tree saying, ‘Let your daughter marry my son.’ But a wild animal in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle under its feet.
以色列王耶曷阿士派人回答猶大王阿瑪責雅說:「黎巴嫩的荊棘派使者去見黎巴嫩的香柏說:將你的女兒嫁給我的兒子為妻! 後來有一隻黎巴嫩的野獸經過,將這棵荊棘踏壞了。
19 [The meaning of what I am saying is that] you are saying to yourself that your army has defeated the army of Edom, so you have become very proud. But you should stay at your home. It would not be good for you to cause trouble, which would result in you and your kingdom of Judah being destroyed.”
你想你打敗了厄東,你就心高氣傲,自鳴得意。現在,你還是留在家裏罷! 又何必惹禍,使你和猶大一同喪亡呢﹖」
20 But Amaziah refused to heed Jehoash’s message. That happened because God wanted Jehoash’s army to defeat them, because they were worshiping the gods of Edom.
但是,阿瑪責雅不肯聽從;這原是出於天主,要將他們交於敵人手中,因為他們求問了厄東的神。
21 So Jehoash’s army attacked. Their two armies faced each other at Beth-Shemesh [city] in Judah.
於是以色列王耶曷阿士上來,在猶大的貝特舍默士,與猶大王阿瑪責雅相見了。
22 The army of Judah was badly defeated by the army of Israel, and all the soldiers of Judah fled to their homes.
猶大人被以色列擊敗,各自逃回帳幕去了。
23 King Jehoash’s army also captured King Amaziah there. Then he brought Amaziah to Jerusalem, and his soldiers tore down the wall [that was around the city], from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. That was a section that was about 600 feet long.
以色列王耶曷阿士在貝特舍默士生擒了阿哈齊雅的孫子,約阿士的兒子猶大王阿瑪責雅,帶到耶路撒冷,將耶路撒冷的城牆拆了一個缺口,從厄弗辣因門直到角門,共四百肘;
24 His soldiers also carried away the gold and silver and other valuable furnishings from the temple which the descendants of Obed-Edom had previously been guarding. They also took away the valuable things in the palace, and they took to Samaria some prisoners whom they had captured.
又將敖貝得厄東所看守的天主殿內的一切金銀和器皿,並王宮的財寶都拿了去;又帶著人質,回了撒瑪黎雅。[阿瑪責雅被殺]
25 King Jehoash of Israel died, and King Amaziah of Judah lived for 15 years after that.
以色列無約阿哈次的兒子耶曷阿士死後,猶大王約阿士的兒子阿瑪責雅還活了十五年。
26 An account of all the other things that Amaziah did while he was the king [of Judah] is written in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel’.
阿瑪責雅前後其餘的事蹟,都記載在猶大和以色列列王實錄上。
27 From the time that Amaziah started to disobey Yahweh, some men in Jerusalem planned to kill him. He was able to escape to Lachish [city], but those who wanted to kill him sent another group of people to Lachish and killed him there.
自從阿瑪責雅離棄了上主以後,在耶路撒冷就有人結黨反抗他,他即逃往拉基士,但是叛黨派人追到拉基士,在那裏將他殺死。
28 They put his corpse on a horse and brought it back to Jerusalem and buried it where his ancestors [had been buried] in the part of Jerusalem called ‘The City of David’.
然後將他的屍體用馬馱回,葬在達味城,和他的祖先埋在一起。