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THE STORY OF MOSES, THE LEADER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
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.
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.
THE WANDERINGS OF THE JEWS（犹太人的漂游）
After many years of suffering they were saved from their miserable fate by a young Jew, called Moses, who for a long time had dwelt in the desert and there had learned to appreciate the simple virtues of his earliest ancestors, who had kept away from cities and city-life and had refused to let themselves be corrupted by the ease and the luxury of a foreign civilisation.
Moses decided to bring his people back to a love of the ways of the patriarchs. He succeeded in evading the Egyptian troops that were sent after him and led his fellow tribesmen into the heart of the plain at the foot of Mount Sinai. During his long and lonely life in the desert, he had learned to revere the strength of the great God of the Thunder and the Storm, who ruled the high heavens and upon whom the shepherds depended for life and light and breath. This God, one of the many divinities who were widely worshipped in western Asia, was called Jehovah, and through the teaching of Moses, he became the sole Master of the Hebrew race.
One day, Moses disappeared from the camp of the Jews. It was whispered that he had gone away carrying two tablets of rough-hewn stone. That afternoon, the top of the mountain was lost to sight. The darkness of a terrible storm hid it from the eye of man. But when Moses returned, behold! there stood engraved upon the tablets the words which Jehovah had spoken unto the people of Israel amidst the crash of his thunder and the blinding flashes of his lightning. And from that moment, Jehovah was recognised by all the Jews as the Highest Master of their Fate, the only True God, who had taught them how to live holy lives when he bade them to follow the wise lessons of his Ten Commandments.
They followed Moses when he bade them continue their journey through the desert. They obeyed him when he told them what to eat and drink and what to avoid that they might keep well in the hot climate. And finally after many years of wandering they came to a land which seemed pleasant and prosperous. It was called Palestine, which means the country of the “Pilistu” the Philistines, a small tribe of Cretans who had settled
MOSES SEES THE HOLY LAND（庙宇）
along the coast after they had been driven away from their own island. Unfortunately, the mainland, Palestine, was already inhabited by another Semitic race, called the Canaanites. But the Jews forced their way into the valleys and built themselves cities and constructed a mighty temple in a town which they named Jerusalem, the Home of Peace.
As for Moses, he was no longer the leader of his people. He had been allowed to see the mountain ridges of Palestine from afar. Then he had closed his tired eyes for all time. He had worked faithfully and hard to please Jehovah. Not only had he guided his brethren out of foreign slavery into the free and independent life of a new home but he had also made the Jews the first of all nations to worship a single God.
犹太人的领袖摩西的故事
在纪元前二十世纪的一个时期，西米游牧民族中一个无足轻重的小部落，离开他们在幼发拉底河口的吾珥
老家，打算在巴比伦王的领土内寻一片新牧场。他们被国王的军队驱逐之后，便往西去寻点没人占据的小地方安置他们的帐幕。
这个游牧部落，原称希伯来民族，就是现在所称的犹太民族。他们南北东西的漫游，经过多少年凄凉的漂泊生活，才在埃及找到一个安身的地方。他们与埃及人同处了五百余年，后来他们所寄养的国家（埃及）被海克索斯盗匪侵略时，他们设法为那些侵略者（海克索斯人）效力，因此他们的牧场没有被骚扰。但经过一个长时期的独立战争，埃及人把海克索斯人从尼罗河流域驱逐之后，犹太人便堕入苦境了。他们被降为普通的奴隶，被强迫去做修理皇家大路与金字塔的工作。那时各边境都有埃及的军队看守，所以犹太人无法逃遁。
他们受了许多年的苦，才被一个犹太少年，名摩西的，从患难中救出来。摩西曾在沙漠上住过很久，在那里他学会尊敬他最早的祖宗所遵守的天真的德性，就是远避城市与城市的生活，不受异邦文明的安逸与奢侈的诱惑。
摩西决意要劝告他的人民恢复他们祖先的生活方法。他逃脱了追逐他的埃及军，率领他的同胞直至西乃山
下平原的中心。以前他在沙漠上过长久寂寞的生活时，曾学会尊敬那位治理上天的，为牧人的生命、光明与呼吸所依赖的雷电风雨大神的权力。这个大神是西亚细亚全体民族所信仰的万神之神，称为耶和华。因为摩西的教训，他便成为希伯来人唯一的主宰。
一天，摩西在犹太军营中忽然失踪，大家私相传说他去搬运两块石碑。那天下午，山顶被一片乌云遮蔽得一丝不见。但到摩西回来时，碑上已刻着耶和华从雷电中指示以色列人的教训。从此后，所有的犹太人才认识耶和华是定他们运命的最高主宰，是那位吩咐他们遵守他的十条诫命，教训他们怎样过圣洁生活的独一无二的真神。
摩西吩咐以色列人继续他们在沙漠上的行程，又告诉他们哪样可吃，哪样可喝，哪样应该回避，以免在炎热的天气里生病，他们都一一服从了他。后来经过许多年的漫游，犹太人终于来到一块快乐而富饶的土地。此地名为巴勒斯坦，意思是“皮利斯塔人的国度”。皮利斯塔人属于克里特人的一支，他们被赶出自己的海岛后，就在西亚海岸定居下来。很不幸的是，此时的巴勒斯坦内陆已经被另一支闪米特部族迎南人占据。然而犹太人奋力冲开道路，进入山谷，建立起许多城市。他们修筑了一座敬奉耶和华的宏伟庙宇，并将庙宇所在的城市命名为“耶路撒冷”，意思是“和平之乡”。
至于摩西，此时的他已不再是犹太人的领袖了。他安详地望着远方巴勒斯坦的群山，然后永远闭上了疲倦的双眼。他一直虔诚而勤勉地工作，取悦耶和华。他不仅把族人从外国的奴役中带到了一个自由独立的新家园，他还使犹太人成为历史上第一个敬奉唯一神的民族。