2 Kings 17
1 Elah’s son Hoshea began to rule Israel after King Ahaz had ruled Judah for twelve years. Hoshea ruled in Samaria for nine years.
猷大王阿哈次十二年，厄拉的兒子曷舍亞在撒瑪黎雅登極為以色列王，在位凡九年。
2 He did many things that Yahweh considered to be evil, but he did not do as many evil things as the previous kings of Israel had done.
他行了上主視為惡的事，但不像他以前的以色列列王。
3 [The army of] King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked and defeated [the army of] King Hoshea. As a result, the Israelis were forced to pay a lot of tribute/taxes to Assyria each year.
亞述王沙耳瑪乃色上來攻打曷舍亞，他便向亞述王稱臣納貢。
4 But several years later, Hoshea secretly planned to rebel against the rulers of Assyria. He sent messengers to So/Osorkon, the king of Egypt, [asking if his army could help the Israelis fight against the army of Assyria]. Hoshea also stopped paying the tribute/taxes that he had been paying to Assyria every year. But the king of Assyria found out about those things, so he told his officers to put Hoshea in prison.
後來亞述王發覺曷舍亞企圖造反。原來曷舍亞曾派使者去見埃及王索阿，就不再向亞述王每年納貢，所以亞述王將他拘捕，囚在監裡。
5 Then he [brought the army of] Assyria to Israel, and they attacked everywhere in that land. His army surrounded Samaria [city] for three years.
隨後，亞述王進軍侵入全國，直逼撒瑪黎雅，圍攻了三年。
6 Finally, after King Hoshea had been ruling Israel for nine years, the army of Assyria [MTY] [forcefully entered] the city [and] captured [the people]. They took the Israeli people to Assyria and forced some of them to live in Halah [town]. They forced others to live near the Habor River in Gozan district. They forced others to live in the towns where the Mede people-group lived.
曷舍亞九年，亞述王攻陷了撒瑪黎雅，把以色列人擄往亞述，把他們安置在哈拉黑和靠近哥倉河的哈波爾，以及瑪待各城。
7 Those things happened because the Israeli people had sinned against Yahweh their God. He had rescued their [ancestors] from the power [MTY] of the king of Egypt and brought them [safely] out of Egypt, but later they began to worship other gods.
這是因為以色列子民犯罪，得罪了領他們離開埃及地，擺脫埃及王法郎之手的上主，他們的天主，而去敬拜了別的神，
8 They imitated the things that the heathen/pagan people-groups did. Those were the groups that Yahweh had expelled as the Israelis occupied their land. The Israeli people also did the evil things that the kings of Israel (introduced/showed to them).
隨從了上主由以色列子民面前，所驅逐的異民的習俗，和以色列列王所規定的律例。
9 The Israeli people also secretly did many things that were not pleasing to Yahweh their God. They built shrines [to worship idols] in all their cities, including small towns and big cities with walls around them.
以色列子民作了不義的事，得罪了上主他們的天主：在他們所有的城中，從守望台直到設防的城，到處建有高丘；
10 They set up stone pillars [to honor gods], and poles [to worship the goddess] Asherah at the top of every high hill and under every [big] tree.
在各高崗上，在所有的綠樹下，豎有石柱和木偶；
11 The Israelis burned incense in every place where they worshiped those gods, just like the people-groups who lived there previously had done—the groups that Yahweh had expelled from the land. The Israelis did many wicked things that caused Yahweh to become angry.
在高丘上，依照上主從他們面前所驅逐的異民的習俗，焚香獻祭，作惡激怒上主；
12 Yahweh warned them many times that they should not worship idols, but they did it anyway.
又敬拜偶像，雖然天主曾明明吩咐他們說：你們不可行這樣的事!
13 Yahweh frequently sent his prophets and (seers/those who saw visions from Yahweh) to warn the people of Israel and the people of Judah. The message that Yahweh gave them was, “Turn away from all your evil behavior. Obey my commands and my laws, the laws that I told your ancestors [to obey] and which I told the prophets who served me to tell to you [again].”
上主曾藉眾先知和先見者警告以色列和猶大說：「你們應離棄你們的邪道，按照我給你們祖先所規定的，藉我的僕人，眾先知給你們傳授的一切法律，遵守我的誡命和我的法令。」
14 But the Israeli people would not pay attention. They were stubborn [IDM] just like their ancestors were. Just like their ancestors did, they refused to believe in Yahweh their God.
他們卻不聽從，如同他們的祖先一樣執拗，不肯相信上主他們的天主，
15 They rejected Yahweh’s laws and the agreement that he had made with their ancestors. They ignored Yahweh’s warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and as a result they themselves became worthless. Although Yahweh had commanded them not to imitate the evil behavior of the people-groups that lived near them, they disobeyed that command.
拒絕了上主的法律和他與他們祖先所訂立的盟約，以及對他們所發出的警告；隨從他們四周上主曾命令他們不可效法的異民，追求虛無，自己成為虛無；
16 The Israeli people disobeyed all of Yahweh’s commands. They made two metal calves [to worship]. They set up two poles [to worship the goddess] Asherah, and they worshiped [the god] Baal, and the sun, the moon, and the stars.
拋棄了上主他們天主的一切命令，為自己鑄造神像，即兩個牛犢，製造木偶，敬拜天上萬象，事奉巴耳，
17 They also burned their own sons and daughters to be sacrifices [to those gods]. They went to fortune-tellers and they practiced sorcery. They continually chose [MET] to do [all kinds of] evil things that caused Yahweh to become angry.
使兒女經火獻神，行占卜和法術，出賣自己，行上主視為惡的事，激怒上主；
18 So, because Yahweh was very angry with the Israeli people, he allowed [their enemies] to take them away [from their country]. Only the people of the tribe of Judah were left [in the land].
因此，上主對以色列大發憤怒，將他們從自己面前趕走，只留下了猶大支派。
19 But even the people of Judah did not obey the commands of Yahweh their God. They imitated the evil customs that the Israelis had introduced.
但是，猶大也沒有遵守上主，他們天主的命令，反而也隨從了以色列所行的習俗。
20 So Yahweh rejected all the people of Israel and of Judah. He punished them by allowing the armies of other nations to defeat them [and take them away]. He got rid of all of them.
為此，上主拋棄了以色列所有的後裔，使他們受壓迫，任人宰割，終於將他們從自己面前趕走。
21 Earlier, when Yahweh allowed the people of Israel to separate/break away from the area [MTY] that King David [had estabished], they chose Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, to be their king. Then Jeroboam enticed the people of Israel to stop worshiping Yahweh [and to worship idols instead]. He led them to commit great sins.
的確，自從上主使以色列與達味家分裂以後，以色列便立了乃巴特的兒子雅洛貝罕為王；雅洛貝罕即引以色列遠離了上主，使他們陷於重罪。
22 And the Israeli people continued to do the evil things that Jeroboam introduced. They did not turn away from those sins,
以色列子民遂追隨雅洛貝罕所犯的一切罪惡，始終沒有離開，
23 until finally Yahweh got rid of them. That was just what his prophets had warned would happen. The Israeli people were taken away to the land of Assyria, and they still remain there.
直到上主將以色列從自己面前趕走，正如上主藉自己的僕人眾先知所說的話。因此，以色列由本國被擄往亞述，直到今日。
24 The king of Assyria [ordered his soldiers to] take [groups of] people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim [cities] to [the] Samaria [region], and to resettle them in the towns there, to take the place of the Israelis [who lived there previously]. Those people took control over [the whole] Samaria [region] and lived in the towns there.
亞術王從巴比倫、雇特、阿瓦、哈瑪特和色法瓦因徙置一些人民，住在撒瑪黎雅各城，以代替以色列人；這些人佔據了撒瑪黎雅，就住在各城內。
25 But those people [who came from other countries] did not worship Yahweh when they first arrived in Samaria. So Yahweh sent lions to kill some of them.
他們起初住在那裡的時候，因為不敬畏上主，所以上主打發獅子來，咬死了他們一些人。
26 Then those people sent a message to the king of Assyria. They wrote, “We people who have resettled in the towns in Samaria do not know how to worship the God [that the Israelis worshiped] in this land. So he has sent lions among us to kill us, because we have not worshiped him correctly.”
有人報告亞述王說：「你在撒瑪黎雅各城徙置的人民，不知敬拜土神的禮儀，因此那神打發獅子來咬死了他們一些人，因為他們不知敬拜土神的禮儀。」
27 [When] the king of Assyria [read this letter, he] commanded [his officers], “You brought many priests here from Samaria. Send one of them back there. Tell him to teach the people who are now living there how to worship correctly the God whom the Israelis worshiped in that land.”
亞述王於是下令說：「你們叫一個從撒瑪黎雅擄來的司祭回去，住在那裡，教給他們敬拜土神的禮儀。」
28 So [the officers did that]. They sent one of the Israeli priests back to Samaria. That priest went to live in Bethel [city], and he taught the people there how to worship Yahweh.
於是，有一個從撒瑪黎雅擄去的司祭回來，住在貝特耳，教給他們該怎麼敬拜雅威。
29 But the people [who returned from Babylon and started to live in Samaria and] continued to make their own idols. They placed them in the shrines that the Israelis had built there. The people of each people-group made idols in the cities in which they were living.
雖然如此，各個民族仍然製造自己的神，供在撒瑪黎雅人所建築的高丘上的廟宇中；各個民族在自己所住的城內，供著自己的神。
30 The people from Babylon made idols to represent their god Succoth-Benoth. The people from Cuthah made idols to represent their god Nergal. The people from Hamath made idols to represent their god Ashima.
巴比倫人製造了穌苛特貝諾特，雇特人製造了乃爾加耳，哈瑪特人製造了阿史瑪，
31 The people of Avva made idols to represent their gods Nibhaz and Tartak. The people from Sepharvaim sacrificed their own children. They completely burned them [in pits where hot fires were kept burning, ] as offerings to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech.
阿瓦人製造了尼貝哈次和塔爾塔克，色法瓦因人使兒女經火，獻於色法瓦因的神阿德辣默肋客和阿納默肋客；
32 But those people also worshiped Yahweh, and they appointed from among their own groups many people to be priests at the shrines on the tops of the hills, in order that those priests could offer sacrifices for them there.
同時他們也敬拜上主，從自己中間選派一些人作高丘上的司祭，在高丘上的廟宇內自己獻祭。
33 So they revered Yahweh, but they also worshiped their own gods, just as the people living in the countries from which they had been taken to Samaria did.
這樣，他們也敬拜上主，也奉事自己的神，從那一國徙置而來的，就照那一國的禮儀。
34 They still keep their old customs. They really do not worship Yahweh, and they do not obey all the laws and commands that Yahweh gave to the descendants of Jacob, to whom he gave the new name Israel.
直到今日，他們仍然依照先前的禮儀而行。雅各伯──上主給他改名為以色列──的子孫，也不全心敬畏上主，也不按照上主給他們所立的條例、禮儀、法律和誡命而行。
35 Yahweh had previously made an agreement with their ancestors, commanding them not to worship other gods or bow down to honor them or do other things to please them or offer sacrifices to them.
上主曾與他們立約，吩咐他們說：「你們不可敬拜別的神，也不可跪拜，也不可事奉，也不可向他們獻祭；
36 He had said to them, “You must have an awesome respect for me, Yahweh, the one who brought you out of Egypt with my very great power [DOU]. I am the one whom you must bow down to honor, and I am the one to whom you must offer sacrifices.
只應敬拜那以強力和伸展的手臂，領你們離開埃地的上主，只應向他跪拜，向他獻祭。
37 You must always obey the laws and commands that I [told Moses to] write for you. You must not worship other gods.
我為你們寫定的條例、禮儀、法律和誡命，要時常謹守遵行，不可敬拜別的神。
38 And you must not forget the agreement that I made with your ancestors. You must not revere other gods.
我與你們立的盟約，不要忘記，也不要敬拜別的神，
39 Instead, you must revere me, Yahweh, your God. If you do that, I will rescue you from the power [MTY] of all your enemies.”
只應敬拜上主你們的天主，他必拯救你們脫離你們一切仇敵的權勢。」
40 But the people [from those foreign nations] would not heed what Yahweh said. Instead, they continued to adhere to their old customs.
然而，他們不聽，仍然依照他們先前的禮儀而行。
41 So, they worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped their idols. And their descendants still do the same thing.
這樣，這些人民敬拜上主，又事奉他們的雕像；他們的子子孫孫也是如此：祖先怎樣行，子孫也怎樣行，直到今日。
