book 7
1 大祭司就说,这些事果然有吗?
Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?"
2 司提反说,诸位父兄请听。当日我们的祖宗亚伯拉罕在米所波大米还未住哈兰的时候,荣耀的神向他显现,
To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
3 对他说,你要离开本地和亲族,往我所要指示你的地方去。
'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'
4 他就离开迦勒底人之地住在哈兰。他父亲死了以后,神使他从那里搬到你们现在所住之地。
"So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.
5 在这地方神并没有给他产业,连立足之地也没有给他。但应许要将这地赐给他和他的后裔为业。那时他还没有儿子。
He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.
6 神说,他的后裔,必寄居外邦,那里的人,要叫他们作奴仆,苦待他们四百年。
God spoke to him in this way: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
7 神又说,使他们作奴仆的那国,我要惩罚,以后他们要出来,在这地方事奉我。
But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.'
8 神又赐他割礼的约。于是亚伯拉罕生了以撒,第八日给他行了割礼。以撒生雅各,雅各生十二位先祖。
Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9 先祖嫉妒约瑟,把他卖到埃及去。神却与他同在,
"Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him
10 救他脱离一切苦难,又使他在埃及王法老面前,得恩典有智慧。法老就派他作埃及国的宰相兼管全家。
and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11 后来埃及和迦南全地遭遇饥荒,大受艰难,我们的祖宗,就绝了粮。
"Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food.
12 雅各听见在埃及有粮,就打发我们的祖宗,初次往那里去。
When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.
13 第二次约瑟与弟兄们相认,他的亲族也被法老知道了。
On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family.
14 约瑟就打发弟兄请父亲雅各,和全家七十五个人都来。
After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.
15 于是雅各下了埃及,后来他和我们的祖宗都死在那里。
Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.
16 又被带到示剑,葬于亚伯拉罕在示剑用银子从哈抹子孙买来的坟墓里。
Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17 及至神应许亚伯拉罕的日期将到,以色列民在埃及兴盛众多,
"As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased.
18 直到有不晓得约瑟的新王兴起。
Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt.
19 他用诡计待我们的宗族,苦害我们的祖宗,叫他们丢弃婴孩,使婴孩不能存活。
He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20 那时,摩西生下来,俊美非凡,在他父亲家里抚养了三个月。
"At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father's house.
21 他被丢弃的时候,法老的女儿拾了去,养为自己的儿子。
When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.
22 摩西学了埃及人一切的学问,说话行事,都有才能。
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23 他将到四十岁,心中起意,去看望他的弟兄以色列人。
"When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.
24 到了那里,见他们一个人受冤屈,就护庇他,为那受欺压的人报仇,打死了那埃及人。
He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.
25 他以为弟兄必明白神是藉他的手搭救他们。他们却不明白。
Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.
26 第二天,遇见两个以色列人争斗,就劝他们和睦,说,你们二位是弟兄,为什么彼此欺负呢?
The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
27 那欺负邻舍的,把他推开说,谁立你作我们的首领,和审判官呢?
"But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us?
28 难道你要杀我,像昨天杀那埃及人吗?
Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'
29 摩西听见这话就逃走了,寄居于米甸。在那里生了两个儿子。
When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
30 过了四十年,在西乃山的旷野,有一位天使,从荆棘火焰中,向摩西显现。
"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
31 摩西见了那异象,便觉希奇。正进前观看的时候,有主的声音说,
When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice:
32 我是你列祖的神,就是亚伯拉罕的神,以撒的神,雅各的神。摩西战战兢兢,不敢观看。
'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 主对他说,把你脚上的鞋脱下来。因为你所站之地是圣地。
"Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground.
34 我的百姓在埃及所受的困苦,我实在看见了。他们悲叹的声音,我也听见了。我下来要救他们,你来,我要差你往埃及去。
I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'
35 这摩西,就是百姓弃绝说,谁立你作我们的首领,和审判官的。神却藉那在荆棘中显现之使者的手,差派他作首领,作救赎的。
"This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36 这人领百姓出来,在埃及,在红海,在旷野,四十年间行了奇事神迹。
He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.
37 那曾对以色列人说,神要从你们弟兄中间,给你们兴起一位先知像我的,就是这位摩西。
"This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.'
38 这人曾在旷野会中,和西乃山上与那对他说话的天使同在,又与我们的祖宗同在,并且领受活泼的圣言传给我们。
He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39 我们的祖宗不肯听从,反弃绝他,心里归向埃及,
"But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
40 对亚伦说,你且为我们造些神像,在我们前面引路。因为领我们出埃及地的那个摩西,我们不知道他遭了什么事。
They told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt--we don't know what has happened to him!'
41 那时,他们造了一个牛犊,又拿祭物献给那像,欢喜自己手中的工作。
That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made.
42 神就转脸不顾,任凭他们事奉天上的日月星辰,正如先知书上所写的说,以色列家阿,你们四十年间在旷野,岂是将牺牲和祭物献给我吗?
But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: "'Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
43 你们抬着摩洛的帐幕,和理番神的星。就是你们所造为要敬拜的像。因此,我要把你们迁到巴比伦外去。
You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile' beyond Babylon.
44 我们的祖宗在旷野,有法柜的帐幕,是神吩咐摩西叫他照所看见的样式作的。
"Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.
45 这帐幕,我们的祖宗相继承受,当神在他们面前赶出外邦人去的时候,他们同约书亚把帐幕搬进承受为业之地,直存到大卫的日子。
Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,
46 大卫在神面前蒙恩,祈求为雅各的神预备居所。
who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
47 却是所罗门为神造成殿宇。
But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
48 其实至高者并不住人手所造的。就如先知所言,
"However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
49 主说,天是我的座位,地是我的脚凳。你们要为我造何等的殿宇?哪里是我安息的地方呢?
"'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?
50 这一切不都是我手所造的吗?
Has not my hand made all these things?'
51 你们这硬着颈项,心与耳未受割礼的人,常时抗拒圣灵。你们的祖宗怎样,你们也怎样。
"You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
52 那一个先知,不是你们祖宗逼迫呢?他们也把预先传说那义者要来的人杀了。如今你们又把那义者卖了,杀了。
Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him--
53 你们受了天使所传的律法,竟不遵守。
you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."
54 众人听见这话,就极其恼怒,向司提反咬牙切齿。
When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
55 但司提反被圣灵充满,定睛望天,看见神的荣耀,又看见耶稣站在神的右边。
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
56 就说,我看见天开了,人子站在神的右边。
"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57 众人大声喊叫,捂着耳朵,齐心拥上前去。
At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,
58 把他推到城外,用石头打他。作见证的人,把衣裳放在一个少年人名叫扫罗的脚前。
dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 他们正用石头打的时候,司提反呼吁主说,求主耶稣接收我的灵魂。
While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
60 又跪下大声喊着说,主阿,不要将这罪归于他们。说了这话就睡了。扫罗也喜悦他被害。
Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.