英语故事（5）：Noah's Ark

　　（1）

　　This is the story of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, the one blameless man of his time；he walked with God. He had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now God saw that the whole world was corrupt and frll of violence. In his sight the world had become corrupted, for all men had lived corrupt lives on earth. God said to Noah, ‘The loathsomeness of all mankind has become plain to me, for through them the earth is full of violence. I intend to destroy them, and the earth with them. Make yourself an ark with ribs of cypress；cover it with reeds and coat it inside and out with pitch. I intend to bring the waters of the flood over the earth to destroy every human being under heaven that has the spirit of life；everything on earth shall perish. But with you I will make a covenant, and you shall go into the ark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons'wives with you. And you shall bring living creatrues of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. two of each kind, a male and a female；two of every kind of bird, beast, and reptile, shall come to you to be kept alive. See that you take and store every kind of food that can be eaten；this shall be food for you and for them. 'Exactly as God had commanded him, so Noah did.

　　And so, to escape the waters of the flood, Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons'wives. And into the ark with Noah went one pair, male and female, of all beasts, clean and unclean, of birds and of everything that crawls on the ground, two by two, as God had commanded. Towards the edn of seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the year when Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that very day, all the springs of the great abyss broke through, the win-dows of the sky were opened, and rain fell on the earth for fortydays and forty nights…The flood continued upon the earth for forty days, and the waters swelled and lifted up the ark so that it rose high above the ground. More and more the waters increased over the earth until they covered all the high mountains everywhere under heaven. The waters increased and the mountains were covered to a depth of fifteen cubits. Everything died that had the breath of life in its nostrils, everything on dry land. God wiped out every living thing that existed on earth, man and beast, reptile and bird；they were all wiped out over the whole earth, and only Noah and his company in the ark survived.

　　（2）

　　After forty days Noah opened the trap-door that he had made in the ark , and released a raven to see whether the water had subsided, but the bird continued flying to and fro until the water on the earth had dried up. Noah waited for seven days, and then he released a dove from the ark to see whether the water on the earth had subsided fruther. But the dove found no place where she could settle, and so she came back to him in the ark, because there was water over the whole surface of the earth. He waited another seven days and again released the dove from the ark. She came back to him towards evening with a newly plucked olive leaf in her beak. Then Noah knew for certain that the water on the earth had subsided still further. He waited yet another seven days and released the dove, but she never came back. And so it came about that, on the first day of the first month of his six hundred and first year, the water had dried up on the earth, and Noah removed the hatch and looked out of the ark. The surface of the ground was dry.

　　By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the whole earth was dry. And God said to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife, yoursons and their wives. Bring out every living creature that is with you, live things of every kind, bird and beast and every reptile that moves on the ground, and let them swarm over the earth and be fruitful and increase there. 'So Noah came out with his sons, his wife, and his sons'wives. Every wild animal, all cattle, every bird, and every reptile that moves on the ground, came out of the ark by families. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took ritually clean beastsand birds of every kind, and offered whole-offerings on the altar. When the Lord smelt the soothing odour, he said within himself, 'Never again will I curse the ground because of man, however evil his inclinations may be from his youth upwards. I will never again kell every living creature, as I have just done. '

　　挪亚方舟

　　（一）

　　下面是挪亚的故事。挪亚是一个正直的人，在当时是一个完人。他追随上帝行事。他有三个儿子：闪、含、和雅弗。上帝看见整个世界腐朽了，到处都是暴力。他认为世界充斥着罪恶，因为所有世上的人都过着邪恶的生活。上帝对挪亚说：“人类的可憎我再清楚不过了，他们使这世界充满了仇杀。我有意要毁灭他们，也毁灭掉同他们一起的这个世界。你要为自己造一艘方舟，用丝柏木做船架，覆盖上芦苇，再在里外两面涂上树脂。我要使洪水泛滥全世界，消灭天下所有活着的人，地上万物也要消灭光。但我要与你立约。你到时就带着你的妻子、儿子、儿媳们一起进入方舟。你还要把各种飞禽、走兽、爬虫，每样两只，雌雄各一带上，和你一道登舟，在船上喂养好。此外还要带上各种吃的东西，储存在船上，作为你们和动物的食粮。”挪亚遵照上帝的话，一一办到了。

　　这样，为了躲避洪水，挪亚和他的妻、子及儿媳们都上了方舟。和他一起上船的还有那些动物：洁净的和不洁净的牲畜，每种都是雌雄一对；所有的鸟类和地上的爬虫，也是一对一对的，按上帝的吩咐那样都上了船。第七天结束的时候，洪水降临到大地。那年挪亚是六百岁，二月十七日那天，大深渊的所有泉源一齐喷发起来，天穹洞开，大雨倾盆，不停地下了四十个昼夜。……洪水泛滥了四十天，大水涨起来把方舟托起，高高地升离地面之上。落在地面的水越来越多，淹没了天下所有的高山。水一直涨到浸没高山十五腕尺之深。一切有气息的生物，所有生活在陆地上的东西，全都没有了。上帝清除了世上的生物，人也好，兽也好，爬虫也好，飞鸟也好，全部从地面上消灭干净，惟独挪亚和在方舟上的他一起的妻子儿媳、鸟兽爬虫活了下来。

　　（二）

　　四十天后，挪亚打开了他方舟上的天窗，放出一只乌鸦去看看水退了没有，但乌鸦飞来飞去，到地面上的水都快干涸也没回来。挪亚等了七天，再从舟上放出一只鸽子去看看地上的水是否再退了些。但因为地面全部都是水，鸽子没落脚的地方，就飞回挪亚的方舟那里。挪亚又等了七天，再次从舟上放出那鸽子去。傍晚时分，鸽子回来了，嘴里衔着一片刚啄下的橄榄叶。挪亚就知道地面上的水退得差不多了。但他又多等了七天，然后放那鸽子出去。这回它再也没有回来了。这样，在挪亚六百零一岁那年的正月初一，地上的水终于退了，挪亚打开舱口盖，从方舟上向外探望，地面已经完全干了。

　　二月二十七日，大地全都干了。上帝对挪亚说：“你和你的妻子，你儿子儿媳们都从方舟上出来吧。把你带上方舟去的各种地上生物，鸟兽爬虫都放出来吧，让它们滋生繁衍，遍布全世界吧。”挪亚就同他的妻子、儿子儿媳们从方舟上走出来。各种地上生物：野兽、牲畜、鸟类和爬虫都是雌雄配对的，也都下了船。接着，挪亚为天主修了一座祭坛。他选了各种各样洁净的鸟兽作为供品，放在祭坛上奉献给天主。天主闻到了供品的香味，心里想道：“我再也不会因人类而使大地遭到灾祸了。不论人从小就有多少邪念，我都不会象这次那样杀死一切生灵了。”

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