Well, maybe not exactly THY enemies, but certainly those of Israel. Even before Israel became a nation, it had plenty of enemies, and things did not get better from there. We of course understand that the presence of enemies by no means implies the absence of blessing or God. Naturally, it serves us well to know our enemies and the ancient enemies of Israel, because we talk about them a lot.
Let’s start with an easy one. Israel actually emerged as a nation through its struggle with the Egyptians 埃及人. In fact, God’s people and Egypt have an entangled history going as far back as Abraham and lasting till recent decades, a juicy story worth its own chapter, or a book.
From Egypt to the Promised Land, the Israelites defeated the Amalekites 亞瑪力人 when Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands. The Amorites 亞摩利人 picked a fight with Israel and lost. Moabites 摩押人 and Midianites 米甸人 hired a prophet to curse Israel, which backfired. Once they got to the Promised Land, Israelites had to deal with its 7 major tribes, namely, Canaanites 迦南人, Hittites 赫人, Amorites, Girgashites 革迦撒人, Perizzites 比利洗人, Hivites 希未人, and Jebusites 耶布斯人. FYI, we don’t hear about the last four as much.
Then, there were the “family affairs”. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, gave rise to the Moabites and Ammonites 亞捫人, both enemies of Israel at one point. Jacob’s brother Esau gave rise to the tribe of Edomites 以東人, and you know it, fought with Israel a few times.
Don’t forget the Philistines 非利士人 (see picture) and Arameans 亞蘭人 (aka Syrians). As if it wasn’t enough, Israel had to contend with not only tribes but also empires like the Assyrians 亞述人 (not related to Syrians) and Babylonians 巴比倫人, which ended their kingdoms. Afterward, they continued to struggle with the Persians 波斯人, Greeks 希利尼人/希臘人 (Macedonians and Seleucids), Romans 羅馬人, and so on.
So there you go. Those are the major enemies that we commonly hear of. And here go their pronunciations. (Please note that not all of them have official Anglicized pronunciations. In some cases, I rely on Hebrew pronunciation to make the best estimate.)
迦南人 {jia1-nan2-ren2} Canaanite [KAY-nuh-nahyt]
赫人 {he4-ren2} Hittite [HI-tahyt]
亞摩利人 {ya4-mo2-li4-ren2} Amorite [A-muh-rahyt]
革迦撒人 {ge2-jia1-sa4-ren2} Girgashite [GEER-guh-shahyt]
比利洗人 {bi3-li4-xi3-ren2} Perizzite [puh-REE-zahyt]
希未人 {xi1-wei4-ren2} Hivite [HAHY-vahyt] or [HI-vahyt]
耶布斯人 {ye1-bu4-si1-ren2} Jebusite [JEB-yuh-sahyt]
亞瑪力人{ya4-ma3-li4-ren2} Amalekite [uh-MA-luh-kahyt]
摩押人{mo2-ya1-ren2} Moabite [MOH-uh-bahyt]
亞捫人{ya4-men2-ren2} Ammonite [A-muh-nahyt]
米甸人{mi3-dian4-ren2} Midianite [MI-dyuhn-nahyt]
非利士人{fei1-li4-shi4-ren2} Philistine [FI-li-steen]
亞蘭人{ya4-lan2-ren2} Aramean [a-ruh-MEE-uhn]
以東人{yi3-dong1-ren2} Edomite [EE-duh-mahyt]
亞述人 {ya4-shu4-ren2} Assyrian [uh-SEE-ryuhn]
巴比倫人{ba1-bi3-lun2-ren2} Babylonian [ba-bi-LOH-nyuhn]
波斯人{bo1-si1-ren2} Persian [PUR-zhuhn]
希利尼人/希臘人 {xi1-li4-ni2-ren2/xi1-la4-ren2} Greek
羅馬人 {luo2-ma3-ren2} Roman
Photo from Public Domain
