也许你已经猜到了，这个奇怪的、弱小的游牧民族是谁。

They were the Jews.

他们就是犹太人。

And the songs of their deeds, which were the deeds of their god, are the Old Testament of the Bible.

这些歌，他们用这些歌来歌唱他们的事迹，这些事迹是他们的神的事迹，这就是《圣经》中的《旧约全书》。

One day – but there's no hurry – you may come to read the Bible.

有一天——但你也不必着急——你可以读读《圣经》。

Nowhere else will you find so many stories about ancient times so vividly told.

你就会发现古代的事情几乎哪儿也没有在《圣经》里讲得这么多、这么生动。

And if you read them carefully, you may find that you now understand many of them better.

如果你仔细阅读，你会发现你现在能更好地理解它们。

There's the story of Abraham, for example.

比如亚伯拉罕的故事。

Do you remember where he came from?

你还记得他来自哪儿吗？

The answer is in the Book of Genesis, in chapter 11.

答案在《圣经》的《创世纪》的第11章中。

He came from Ur in the Chaldees.

他来自迦勒底的乌尔城。

Ur–that mound of rubble near the Persian Gulf, where they dug up all those ancient things like harps and game-boards and weapons and jewelry.

乌尔城——这是波斯湾附近的废墟，人们在那儿挖掘出很古老的文物，如竖琴和棋盘，武器和首饰。

But Abraham didn't live there in the earliest times.

但是亚伯拉罕不是生活在很古老的时代。

He was probably alive at the time of Hammurabi, the great lawgiver, which was–as you remember! – around 1,700 BC.

他大概生活在伟大的立法者汉谟拉比的那个时代，这就是——就像你记得的那样——大约在公元前1700年。

And many of Hammurabi's strict and just laws turn up again in the Bible.

汉谟拉比的某些许多和公正的法典，人们也在《圣经》中重新找到了。