967 英翻中 (667) The Ecclesiastes (十七) 傳道書(十七) 17/01/2025

967 英翻中 (667)             The Ecclesiastes (十七)                傳道書(十七)                         17/01/2025                                                                                                                                                                     

        Today is better than yesterday (v. 10). When life is difficult and we are impatient for change, it is easy to long for “the good old days” when things were better. When the foundation was laid for the second temple, the old men wept for “the good old days” and the young men sang because the work had begun (Ezra 3:12–13). It has been said that “the good old days” are the combination of a bad memory and a good imagination, and often this is true.                                                                                                      今天比昨天好（10節）。當生活困難並且我們不耐煩改變時，我們很容易渴望事情更好時的「過去的美好時光」。當第二座聖殿奠基時，老人們為「美好的時光」哭泣，而年輕人則因工程開始而歌唱（以斯拉記 3：12-13）。有人說，「過去的美好時光」是糟糕的記憶力和美好的想像力的結合，這通常是正確的。                                                                                                                 Yesterday is past and cannot be changed, and tomorrow may not come, so make the most of today. “Carpe diem!” wrote the Roman poet Horace. “Seize the day!” This does not mean we shouldn’t learn from the past or prepare for the future, because both are important. It means that we must live today in the will of God and not be paralyzed by yesterday or hypnotized by tomorrow. The Victorian essayist Hilaire Belloc wrote, “While you are dreaming of the future or regretting the past, the present, which is all you have, slips from you and is gone.”                                                                                                              昨天已經過去，無法改變，明天也可能不會到來，所以要充分利用今天。 “及時行樂！”羅馬詩人賀拉斯寫道。 “把握光陰！”這並不意味著我們不應該向過去學習或為未來做準備，因為兩者都很重要。這意味著我們今天必須活在神的旨意中，而不是被昨天麻痺或被明天催眠。維多利亞時代的散文家希萊爾·貝洛克（Hilaire Belloc）寫道：“當你夢想著未來或對過去感到遺憾時，你所擁有的現在，就會從你身邊溜走並消失。”

Wisdom Helps Us See Life Clearly (7:11–18)                                                                                        智慧幫助我們清楚地看待生活（7:11-18）                                                                                          One of the marks of maturity is the ability to look at life in perspective and not get out of balance. When you have God’s wisdom, you will be able to accept and deal with the changing experiences of life.      成熟的標誌之一是能夠正確看待生活而不失去平衡。當你擁有神的智慧時，你就能接受並應對生活中不斷變化的經驗。                                                                                                                                    Wealth (vv. 11–12).Wisdom is better than a generous inheritance. Money can lose its value, or be stolen, but true wisdom keeps its value and cannot be lost, unless we become fools and abandon it deliberately. The person who has wealth but lacks wisdom will only waste his fortune, but the person who has wisdom will know how to get and use wealth. We should be grateful for the rich treasure of wisdom we have inherited from the past, and we should be ashamed of ourselves that we too often ignore it or disobey it. Wisdom is like a “shelter” to those who obey it; it gives greater protection than money.                                                                                                                                                                     財富（11-12節）。金錢可能會失去價值，或被偷走，但真正的智慧卻能保持其價值，不會失去，除非我們變成傻瓜，故意放棄它。擁有財富而缺乏智慧的人只會浪費自己的財富，而擁有智慧的人就會懂得如何取得和運用財富。我們應該對我們從過去繼承下來的豐富智慧寶藏心存感激，並且應該為自己經常忽視或違背它而感到羞恥。智慧對那些服從它的人來說就像一個「庇護所」；它提供比金錢更大的保護。                                                                                                          Providence (v. 13). The rustic preacher who said to his people, “Learn to cooperate with the inevitable!” knew the meaning of this verse. The Living Bible paraphrases it, “See the way God does things and fall into line. Don’t fight the facts of nature.” This is not a summons to slavish fatalism; like Ecclesiastes 1:15, it is a sensible invitation to a life yielded to the will of God. If God makes something crooked, He is able to make it straight; and perhaps He will ask us to work with Him to get the job done. But if He wants it to stay crooked, we had better not argue with Him. We don’t fully understand all the works of God (11:5), but we do know that “He hath made everything beautiful in its time” (3:11). This includes the things we may think are twisted and ugly.                                                                                 上帝的預備（13節）。這位質樸的傳教士對他的人民說：“學會與不可避免的事情合作！”知道這節經文的意思。 《活生生的聖經》有這樣一句話：「看看神做事的方式，然後就遵守規則。不要與自然事實作鬥爭。這不是對奴隸制宿命論的召喚；而是對宿命論的召喚。就像傳道書 1 章 15 節一樣，這是對順服上帝旨意的生活的明智邀請。神若使東西彎曲，也能使它變直；神使東西彎曲，也能使它變直。也許他會要求我們與他合作完成工作。但如果他想讓它保持彎曲，我們最好不要與他爭論。我們無法完全理解上帝所有的作為（11:5），但我們確實知道「祂造萬物，各按其時成為美好」（3:11）。這包括我們可能認為扭曲和醜陋的事物。                       While I don’t agree with all of his theology, I do appreciate the “Serenity Prayer” written in 1934 by Reinhold Niebuhr. A version of it is used around the world by people in various support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, and it fits the lesson Solomon teaches in verse 13:                                                   雖然我不同意他的全部神學，但我確實欣賞萊因霍爾德·尼布爾 (Reinhold Niebuhr) 於 1934 年寫的《寧靜祈禱》。它的一個版本被世界各地不同支持團體的人們所使用，例如戒酒互誡協會，它符合所羅門在第 13 節中教導的教訓：

            O God, give us                                                           上帝啊，請賜給我們                                                Serenity to accept what cannot be changed,              平靜去接受無法改變的事情，                                Courage to change what should be changed,             賜給我們勇氣去改變應該改變的事情，                And wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.   賜給我們智慧來區分彼此。

       Adversity and prosperity (v. 14). Wisdom gives us perspective so that we aren’t discouraged when times are difficult or arrogant when things are going well. It takes a good deal of spirituality to be able to accept prosperity as well as adversity, for often prosperity does greater damage (Phil. 4:10–13). Job reminded his wife of this truth when she told him to curse God and die: “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil [trouble]?” (2:10). Earlier, Job had said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21).                                          逆境與繁榮（14節）。智慧賦予我們遠見，使我們在困難時不氣餒，在一切順利時不傲慢。需要有很大的靈性才能接受順境和逆境，因為順境往往造成更大的傷害（腓 4:10-13）。當約伯告訴他的妻子咒罵上帝並死去時，她提醒了她這個真理：「什麼？難道我們會從神手中得到好處，而不會受到邪惡 [麻煩]嗎？ （2:10）。早些時候，約伯曾說：「賞賜的是耶和華，收取的也是耶和華；耶和華的名是應當稱頌的」（1:21）。                                                                            God balances our lives by giving us enough blessings to keep us happy and enough burdens to keep us humble. If all we had were blessings in our hands, we would fall right over, so the Lord balances the blessings in our hands with burdens on our backs. That helps to keep us steady, and as we yield to Him, He can even turn the burdens into blessings.                                                                                  上帝平衡我們的生活，賜給我們足夠的祝福讓我們快樂，也給我們足夠的負擔讓我們謙卑。如果我們手裡只有祝福，我們就會跌倒，所以主平衡我們手中的祝福和我們背上的擔子。這有助於我們保持穩定，當我們屈服於祂時，祂甚至可以將負擔變成祝福。                                             Why does God constitute our lives in this way? The answer is simple: to keep us from thinking we know it all and that we can manage our lives by ourselves. “Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future” (v. 14 niv). Just about the time we think we have an explanation for things, God changes the situation, and we have to throw out our formula. This is where Job’s friends went wrong: they tried to use an old road map to guide Job on a brand-new journey, and the map didn’t fit. No matter how much experience we have in the Christian life, or how many books we read, we must still walk by faith.                                                                                                                                                                      上帝為什麼要這樣安排我們的生命呢？答案很簡單：讓我們不要以為自己無所不知，可以自己管理自己的人生。 「因此，人無法得知自己的未來」（14節）。就在我們認為自己對事情有了解釋的時候，上帝改變了情況，我們不得不拋棄我們的公式。這就是約伯的朋友們犯的錯誤：他們試圖用舊的路線圖來引導約伯踏上全新的旅程，但地圖並不合適。無論我們在基督徒生活上有多少經歷，或讀了多少書，我們仍然必須憑信心而行。                                                               Righteousness and sin (vv. 15–18). If there is one problem in life that demands a mature perspective, it is “Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper?” The good die young, while the wicked seem to enjoy long lives, and this seems contrary to the justice of God and the Word of God. Didn’t God tell the people that the obedient would live long (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 4:40) and the disobedient would perish? (Deut. 4:25–26; Ps. 55:23).                                                                                                            公義與罪（15-18節）。如果生活中有一個問題需要成熟的視角，那就是“為什麼義人受苦，惡人興旺？”好人早逝，而惡人似乎長壽，這似乎違背了神的公義和神的話。神不是告訴人們，順服的人會長壽（出 20:12；申命記 4:40），而悖逆的人會滅亡嗎？ （申 4：25-26；詩篇 55：23）。                                                                                                                                                                     Two facts must be noted. Yes, God did promise to bless Israel in their land if they obeyed His law, but He has not given those same promises to believers today under the new covenant. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) wrote, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.” Our Lord’s opening words in the Sermon on the Mount were not “Blessed are the rich in substance” but “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3; and see Luke 6:20).                                                  必須注意兩個事實。是的，神確實應許，如果以色列人遵守祂的律法，祂就會在他們的土地上祝福他們，但祂並沒有在新約下給今天的信徒同樣的應許。法蘭西斯‧培根（Francis Bacon，1561-1626）寫道：「繁榮是舊約的祝福；逆境是新人的祝福。我們的主在登山寶訓中的開場白不是“物質豐富的人有福了”，而是“精神貧窮的人有福了”（太5:3；參考路加福音6:20）。                                                                                                                                                                 Second, the wicked appear to prosper only if you take the short view of things. This was the lesson Asaph recorded in Psalm 73 and that Paul reinforced in Romans 8:18 and 2 Corinthians 4:16–18. “They have their reward” (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16), and that reward is all they will ever get. They may gain the whole world, but they lose their own souls. This is the fate of all who follow their example and sacrifice the eternal for the temporal.                                                                                                                                        其次，只有當你目光短淺時，惡人才會繁榮昌盛。這是亞薩在詩篇 73 篇中記錄的教訓，保羅在羅馬書 8 章 18 節和哥林多後書 4 章 16-18 節中也強調了這一教訓。 「他們已經得到了他們的賞賜」（太6:2,5,16），而這個賞賜就是他們所能得到的一切。他們或許得到了全世界，卻失去了自己的靈魂。這是所有效法他們的榜樣並為短暫犧牲永恆的人的命運。                                           Verses 16–18 have been misunderstood by those who say that Solomon was teaching “moderation” in everyday life: don’t be too righteous, but don’t be too great a sinner. “Play it safe!” say these cautious philosophers, but this is not what Solomon wrote.                                                                                                 第 16 至 18 節被一些人誤解，他們認為所羅門在日常生活中教導「節制」：不要太公義，但也不要作太大的罪人。 “注意安全！”這些謹慎的哲學家這樣說，但這並不是所羅門所寫的。          In the Hebrew text, the verbs in verse 16 carry the idea of reflexive action. Solomon said to the people, “Don’t claim to be righteous and don’t claim to be wise.” In other words, he was warning them against self-righteousness and the pride that comes when we think we have “arrived” and know it all. Solomon made it clear in verse 20 that there are no righteous people, so he cannot be referring to true righteousness. He was condemning the self-righteousness of the hypocrite and the false wisdom of the proud, and he warned that these sins led to destruction and death.                                                                      在希伯來文本中，第 16 節的動詞帶有反身動作的意思。所羅門對百姓說：“不要自稱為正義，也不要自稱為智慧。”換句話說，他警告他們不要自以為是，不要因為我們認為自己已經「到達」並且知道一切而感到驕傲。所羅門在第20節明確表示，世上沒有義人，所以他所說的義不可能是真正的義。他譴責偽君子的自以為是和驕傲者的虛假智慧，並警告這些罪惡會導致毀滅和死亡。                                                                                                                                                        Verse 18 balances the warning: we should take hold of true righteousness and should not withdraw from true wisdom, and the way to do it is to walk in the fear of God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10), and Jesus Christ is to the believer “wisdom and righteousness” (1 Cor. 1: 30), so God’s people need not “manufacture” these blessings themselves.                                               第18節平衡了警告：我們應該持守真正的公義，不應該退出真正的智慧，而做到這一點的方法就是敬畏上帝。 「敬畏耶和華是智慧的開端」（箴 9:10），而耶穌基督對信徒來說就是「智慧和公義」（哥林多前書 1:30），所以上帝的子民不需要「製造」這些祝福本身。

Wisdom Helps Us Face Life Stronger (7:19–29)                                                                                    智慧幫助我們面對生活更堅強（7:19-29）                                                                                              “Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city” (v. 19 niv). The wise person fears the Lord and therefore does not fear anyone or anything else (Ps. 112). He walks with the Lord and has the adequacy necessary to face the challenges of life, including war (see 9:13–18).                「智慧使一個智者比城裡十個統治者更強大」（19節）。智慧人敬畏耶和華，因此不懼怕任何人或任何事（詩篇 112）。他與主同行，有能力面對生活中的挑戰，包括戰爭（見9：13-18）。                                                                                                                                                                    What are some of the problems in life that we must face and overcome?                                                    生活中有哪些問題是我們必須面對和克服的？                                                                                        Sin (v. 20, and note 1 Kings 8:46). We are all guilty of both sins of omission (“doeth good”) and sins of commission (“sinneth not”). If we walk in the fear of God and follow His wisdom, we will be able to detect and defeat the wicked one when he comes to tempt us. Wisdom will guide us and guard us in our daily walk.                                                                                                                                                  罪（第 20 節，並注意   列王上 8:46）。我們都犯有不作為之罪（「行善」）和行為之罪（「不犯罪」）。如果我們行事敬畏上帝並遵循祂的智慧，當惡人來試探我們時，我們就能識破並擊敗祂。智慧會指引我們、守護我們的日常生活。                                                                                 What people say about us (vv. 21–22). The wise person pays no attention to the gossip of the day because he has more important matters which to attend. Charles Spurgeon told his pastoral students that the minister ought to have one blind eye and one deaf ear. “You cannot stop people’s tongues,” he said, “and therefore the best thing to do is to stop your own ears and never mind what is spoken. There is a world of idle chitchat abroad, and he who takes note of it will have enough to do” (Lectures to My Students; Marshall, Morgan, and Scott reprint edition, 1965, 321). Of course, if we are honest, we may have to confess that we have done our share of talking about others! (See Ps. 38 and Matt. 7:1–3.)                  人們如何評價我們（21-22節）。明智的人不會注意當天的閒言碎語，因為他有更重要的事情要去處理。司布真 (Charles Spurgeon) 告訴他的牧師學生，牧師應該睜一隻眼閉一隻眼。 「你無法阻止人們的舌頭，」他說，「因此最好的辦法就是堵住自己的耳朵，別管別人說什麼。國外有一個閒聊的世界，注意到它的人將有足夠的事情可做」（給我的學生的講座；馬歇爾、摩根和斯科特重印版，1965年，321）。當然，如果我們是誠實的，我們可能不得不承認我們已經盡了談論別人的責任！ （參考詩篇 38 和馬太福音 7:1-3。）                                                                      Our inability to grasp the meaning of all that God is doing in this world (vv. 23–25; and see 3:11; 8:17). Even Solomon with all his God-given wisdom could not understand all that exists, how God manages it, and what purposes He has in mind. He searched for the “reason [scheme] of things” but found no final answers to all his questions. However, the wise man knows that he does not know, and this is what helps to make him wise!                                                                                                               我們無法理解神在這個世界所做的一切的意義（23-25節；參考3:11；8:17）。即使所羅門擁有上帝賦予的全部智慧，也無法理解一切存在、上帝如何管理它以及祂心中有什麼目的。他尋找“事物的原因[方案]”，但沒有找到所有問題的最終答案。然而，聰明人知道他不知道，這就是使他變得聰明的原因！                                                                                                                                     The sinfulness of humanity in general (vv. 26–29). Solomon began with the sinful woman, the prostitute who traps men and leads them to death (v. 26; and see Prov. 2:16–19; 5:3–6; 6:24–26; 7:5–27). Solomon himself had been snared by many foreign women who enticed him away from the Lord and into the worship of heathen gods (1 Kings 11:3–8). The way to escape this evil woman is to fear God and seek to please Him.                                                                                                                                   人類普遍的罪孽（26-29節）。所羅門從罪孽深重的女人開始，妓女誘騙男人並將他們帶至死亡（第 26 節；參考箴言 2:16-19；5:3-6；6:24-26；7:5-27） 。所羅門本人曾被許多外國婦女所陷害，這些婦女引誘他離開耶和華並崇拜異教諸神（列王記上 11：3-8）。逃離這個邪惡女人的方法就是敬畏上帝並尋求討祂的喜悅。                                                                                                         Solomon concluded that the whole human race was bound by sin and one man in a thousand was wise— and not one woman! (The number 1,000 is significant in the light of 1 Kings 11:3.) We must not think that Solomon rated women as less intelligent than men, because this is not the case. He spoke highly of women in Proverbs (12:4; 14:1; 18:22; 19:14; 31:10ff.), Ecclesiastes (9:9), and certainly in the Song of Solomon. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon even pictured God’s wisdom as a beautiful woman (1:20ff.; 8:1ff.; 9:1ff.). But keep in mind that women in that day had neither the freedom nor the status that they have today, and it would be unusual for a woman to have learning equal to that of a man. It was considered a judgment of God for women to rule over the land (Isa. 3:12; but remember Miriam and Deborah, two women who had great leadership ability).                                                                                 所羅門得出的結論是，整個人類都受到罪惡的束縛，千分之一的男人是明智的，而女人卻沒有！ （根據列王記上 11:3，1,000 這個數字很重要。）我們絕不能認為所羅門認為女性不如男性聰明，因為事實並非如此。他在《箴言》（12:4；14:1；18:22；19:14；31:10ff）、《傳道書》（9:9）以及《雅歌》中高度評價了女性。在《箴言》中，所羅門甚至將神的智慧描繪成一位美麗的婦人（1:20 以後；8:1 以後；9:1 以後）。但請記住，當時的女性既沒有今天的自由，也沒有今天的地位，女性擁有與男性同等的學識是不尋常的。婦女統治土地被認為是上帝的審判（以賽亞書 3:12；但請記住米利暗和底波拉，這兩位具有出色領導能力的婦女）。                            God made man (Adam) upright, but Adam disobeyed God and fell, and now all men are sinners who seek out many clever inventions. Created in the image of God, man has the ability to understand and harness the forces God put into nature, but he doesn’t always use this ability in constructive ways. Each forward step in science seems to open up a Pandora’s box of new problems for the world, until we now find ourselves with the problems of polluted air and water and depleted natural resources. And besides that, man has used his abilities to devise alluring forms of sin that are destroying individuals and nations.                                                                                                                                                                  上帝造人（亞當）是正直的，但亞當不順服神而墮落，現在所有人都是罪人，追求許多聰明的發明。人類按照上帝的形象創造，有能力理解和利用上帝賦予自然的力量，但他並不總是以建設性的方式使用這種能力。科學的每一步進步似乎都為世界打開了充滿新問題的潘朵拉魔盒，直到我們現在發現自己面臨空氣和水污染以及自然資源枯竭的問題。除此之外，人類也利用自己的能力設計出誘人的罪惡形式，毀滅個人和國家。                                                                            Yes, there are many snares and temptations in this evil world, but the person with godly wisdom will have the power to overcome. Solomon has proved his point: wisdom can make our lives better and clearer and stronger. We may not fully understand all that God is doing, but we will have enough wisdom to live for the good of others and the glory of God.                                                                                 是的，這個邪惡的世界有很多網羅和誘惑，但具有敬虔智慧的人將有能力克服。所羅門證明了他的觀點：智慧可以讓我們的生活變得更好、更清晰、更強壯。我們可能無法完全理解神所做的一切，但我們將有足夠的智慧為他人的利益和神的榮耀而活。