Moses said, “It isn’t appropriate to do so; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Yahweh our God. Behold, if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, won’t they stone us?
Parallel Translations
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Moses said, “It isn’t appropriate to do so; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Yahweh our God. Behold, if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, won’t they stone us?
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And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?
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(8-22) And Moses said: 'It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God; lo, if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Exodus 8:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 43:32 They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians don’t eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.
- Genesis 46:34 that you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
- Exodus 3:18 They will listen to your voice. You shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall tell him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our God.’
- Deuteronomy 7:25-26 You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
- Deuteronomy 12:30-31 be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
- 1 Kings 11:5-7 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and didn’t go fully after Yahweh, as David his father did. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
- 2 Kings 23:13 The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon.
- Ezra 9:1 Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
- Isaiah 44:19 No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”
- 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.” Therefore “ ‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain For the Egyptians worshipped divers beasts, as the ox,…
For the Egyptians worshipped divers beasts, as the ox, the sheep and such like which the Israelites offered in sacrifice, which thing the Egyptians abhorred to see.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 8:26 And Moses said, It is not meet…
Exo 8:26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?
Ver. 26. Will they not stone us?] Superstition is cruel; witness the Popish Inquisition to Lithgow, who, in ten hours, received seventy various torments. And the massacre of Paris, wherein they poisoned the Queen of Navarre, murdered the most part of the peerless nobility in France, their wives and children, with a great sort of the common people, a hundred thousand in one year in various parts of the realm; some say three hundred thousand! The bloody and barbarous persecutions of the religious abroad in Bohemia, the Valtoline, Piedmont, and Netherlands; the Marian dog-days here at home; are better known than I need to mention them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain It is not meet, Heb. not right, neither in…
It is not meet, Heb. not right, neither in God’s eyes, who hath appointed us the place as well as the thing; nor in the Egyptians’ eyes, as it follows.
The abomination of the Egyptians; that which the Egyptians abhor to kill, or to see killed; as not only Scripture, but profane authors, as Diodorus, and Tully, and Juvenal, witness, because they worshipped them as gods, as is notoriously known. Their fear was just; for when once a Roman had but killed a cat, though imprudently, the people tumultuously met together, and beset his house, and killed him in spite of the king and his princes, who used their utmost power and diligence to prevent it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain We will go three days' journey into the wilderness,....…
We will go three days' journey into the wilderness,.... As was first insisted on, and from which demand they should not depart:
and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, as he shall command us; both what sacrifices shall be offered, and the manner in which they shall be done, both which seemed for the present in a good measure undetermined and unknown; and therefore it was possible, and very probable, that in one or the other they should give offence to the Egyptians, should they sacrifice among them, being at all events resolved to do as the Lord should command them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The abomination of the Egyptians - That which they…
The abomination of the Egyptians - That which they abominate to see killed, because they worshipped them as gods.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 26. We shall sacrifice the abomination of the…
Verse 26. We shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians] That is, The animals which they hold sacred, and will not permit to be slain, are those which our customs require us to sacrifice to our God; and should we do this in Egypt the people would rise in a mass, and stone us to death. Perhaps few people were more superstitious than the Egyptians. Almost every production of nature was an object of their religious worship: the sun, moon, planets, stars, the river Nile, animals of all sorts, from the human being to the monkey, dog, cat, and ibis, and even the onions and leeks which grew in their gardens. Jupiter was adored by them under the form of a ram, Apollo under the form of a crow, Bacchus under that of a goat, and Juno under that of a heifer. The reason why the Egyptians worshipped those animals is given by Eusebius, viz., that when the giants made war on the gods, they were obliged to take refuge in Egypt, and assume the shapes or disguise themselves under different kinds of animals in order to escape. Jupiter hid himself in the body of a ram, Apollo in that of a crow, Bacchus in a goat, Diana in a cat, Juno in a white heifer, Venus in a fish, and Mercury in the bird ibis; all which are summoned up by Ovid in the following lines: -
Duxque gregis fit Jupiter -------------
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Delius in corvo, proles Semeleia capro,
Fele soror Phoebi, nivea Saturnia vacca,
Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius ibidis alis.
METAM., l. v., fab. v., 1. 326.
How the gods fled to Egypt's slimy soil,
And hid their heads beneath the banks of Nile;
How Typhon from the conquer'd skies pursued
Their routed godheads to the seven-mouth'd flood;
Forced every god, his fury to escape,
Some beastly form to take, or earthly shape.
Jove, so she sung, was changed into a ram,
From whence the horns of Libyan Ammon came;
Bacchus a goat, Apollo was a crow,
Phoebe a cat, the wife of Jove a cow,
Whose hue was whiter than the falling snow;
Mercury, to a nasty ibis turn'd,
The change obscene, afraid of Typhon mourn'd,
While Venus from a fish protection craves,
And once more plunges in her native waves.
MAYNWARING.
These animals therefore became sacred to them on account of the deities, who, as the fable reports, had taken refuge in them. Others suppose that the reason why the Egyptians would not sacrifice or kill those creatures was their belief in the doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; for they feared lest in killing an animal they should kill a relative or a friend. This doctrine is still held by the Hindoos.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 8:26. We should sacrifice the abomination of the…
Exo 8:26. We should sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians — That which they abominated to see killed, because they worshipped as gods the animals which the Hebrews were wont to offer in sacrifice. From this it seems probable, and from no mention being made of any, that the Israelites had omitted to offer sacrifices from their first coming into Egypt.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The abomination - i. e. an animal which the…
The abomination - i. e. an animal which the Egyptians held it sacrilegious to slay. The ox, bull, or cow, is meant. The cow was never sacrificed in Egypt, being sacred to Isis, and from a very early age the ox was worshipped throughout Egypt, and more especially at Heliopolis and Memphis under various designations, Apis, Mnevis, Amen-Ehe, as the symbol or manifestation of their greatest deities, Osiris, Atum, Ptah, and Isis.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The abominations, &c. That is, the things they worship…
The abominations, &c. That is, the things they worship for gods: oxen, rams, &c. It is the usual style of the Scriptures to call all idols and false gods, abominations; to signify how much the people of God ought to detest and abhor them. (Challoner) --- The Egyptians adored the stars, and even the vilest creatures, on account of some advantage which they derived from them. (Cicero, N. Deor. i.) They sometimes sacrificed animals; though, at first, "they offered only prayer and incense." (Macrobius, Satur. i. 7; Genesis xliii. 16.) Their belief in the transmigration of souls, perhaps, induced them to abstain from the immolation of beasts. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 26. The abomination of the Egyptians — The Egyptians…
26. The abomination of the Egyptians — The Egyptians would not allow them to worship in the land according to Jehovah’s will. Some, as Hengstenberg, understand the text to mean that the manner of their worship would be abominable to the Egyptians — that they would not observe the manifold rigid sacrificial regulations of the Egyptian priests, but the Targum of Onkelos translates, “the animal which the Egyptians worship,” that is, the ox, which as Apis and Mnevis was so specially adored. So the Vulgate renders, “the animals which the Egyptians worship.” This is a characteristic Hebrew phraseology. Idols are often styled “abominations” in the Old Testament. Thus, in 2Ki_23:13, the god Chemosh is called “the abomination of Moab,” and Ashtoreth “the abomination of the Zidonians.” So the ox is here called “the abomination of the Egyptians,” not as abominated by them, not because it was abominable in their eyes to kill it, but because this worship of the ox was an abomination to Jehovah. This was doubtless bold language for Moses to use to Pharaoh, (styling his god an “abomination,”) but his boldness has greatly increased since he deprecated his stammering tongue, and the same spirit is seen in the pungent rebuke and exhortation of the twenty-ninth verse, “Let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more.”
The sacred bull was specially worshipped at Memphis, the great city of Lower Egypt, where he had palatial stalls and temples. In the above engraving the bull is crowned with a circle representing Ra, or the sun, and also wears on his forehead the asp, the symbol of majesty.
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Will they not stone us — The animal-worship of the Egyptians is frequently dwelt upon by classical writers, so that it became a proverb that in Egypt it was easier to meet a god than a man. The text is well illustrated by the statement of Herodotus, that it was a capital crime in Egypt to kill one of the sacred animals; and Diodorus and Cicero relate that this was the case in their time. (Herod., 2:65; Cic., Tusc. Disp., 5:27; Diod., 1:83.) So modern Hinduism makes it a mortal sin to kill a cow. (Butler’s Land of the Veda, chap. 2.) The Egyptians, however, killed oxen for food, beef and goose being their chief meats. The same animals were not sacred through all Egypt, but each had his special district, and the ox or heifer, one of the animals specially designated for sacrifice in the Mosaic economy, was, as we have seen, particularly worshipped in the district where the Israelites dwelt. Apis was the sacred bull of Memphis, and Mnevis, second only in rank to Apis, and by Plutarch called his sire, was the sacred bull of Heliopolis. (Wilkinson’s Anc. Egypt, chap. iv,) and these were the two leading cities of Lower Egypt. Thus the fear expressed by Moses, “Will they not stone us?” is just what might have been expected in Egypt above all other lands, and in this district above all others of Egypt.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 26. Moses objects that, if they do this, they…
26. Moses objects that, if they do this, they will arouse the religious susceptibilities of the Egyptians, and be in danger of their lives.
meet] i.e. suitable, proper; an archaism, not unfrequent in AV., RV.: see e.g. Gen_2:18, Mat_3:8 (AV.: RV. worthy), Exo_15:26.
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the abomination of the Egyptians] i.e. animals which the Egyptians deemed it unlawful to sacrifice, and the sacrifice of which would consequently shock them: as the cow (which was sacred to Isis), the bull (which, according to Hdt. ii. 41, was only sacrificed by them when it was ‘clean,’ i.e. free from the sacred marks of Apis), sheep at Thebes, and goats (according to Wiedemann, an error for rams) at Mendes: see Hdt. ii. 38, 41, 42, 46; cf. Wilk.-Birch, ii. Exo 460, iii. 108 f., 304 f.; Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites Buch, pp. 180–3, 187 f., 196 f., 218 f.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (26) It is not meet so to do.—Pressed to…
(26) It is not meet so to do.—Pressed to remain “in the land,” and sacrifice, Moses deemed it right to explain to the king why this was impossible. The Israelites would have to “sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians”—i.e., animals of which the Egyptians abominated the killing; and if they did this in the presence of Egyptians, a riot would be certain to break out—perhaps a civil war would ensue. The animal worship of the Egyptians is a certain, and generally recognised, fact. It seemed to the Greeks and Romans the most striking characteristic of the Egyptian reliction. (See Herod, ii. 65-76; Diod. Sic. i. 82-84; Cic. De Nat. Deor. i. 36; &c.) The sacrificial animals of the Hebrews—sheep, goats, and cattle—were all of them sacred animals, either to the Egyptians generally, or to the inhabitants of certain districts. A Theban could not endure the sacrifice of a sheep, nor a Men-desian that of a goat (Herod. ii. 42). White cows and heifers—perhaps cows and heifers generally—were sacred to Isis-Athor. Any bull-calf might be an Apis; and it could not be known whether he was Apis or not till the priests had examined him (Herod. iii. 28). The extent to which the Egyptians carried their rage when a sacred animal was killed in their presence is illustrated by many facts in history. On one occasion a Roman ambassador, who had accidentally killed a cat, was torn to pieces by the populace (Diod. Sic. i. 83). On another, war broke out between the Oxyrinchites and the Cynopolites, because the latter had eaten one of the fish considered sacred by the former (Plutarch, De Isid. et Osir. § 44). The fear of Moses was thus not at all groundless.
Will they not stone us?—This is the first mention of “stoning” in Scripture or elsewhere. It was not a legalised Egyptian punishment; but probably it was everywhere one of the earliest, as it would be one of the simplest, modes of wreaking popular vengeance. Æschylus mentions it (Sept. 100 Th. 183), also Herodotus (v. 38). It was known in ancient Persia (Ctes. Fr. 50).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain It is not meet so to do. So many…
It is not meet so to do. So many animals were held sacred by the Egyptians, some universally, some partially, that, if they held a great festival anywhere in Egypt, the Israelites could not avoid offending the religious feelings of their neighbours. Some animals would be sure to be sacrificed white cows, or heifers, for instance by some of the people, which the Egyptians regarded it as sacrilegious to put to death. A bloody conflict, or even a civil war, might be the consequence. By the abomination of the Egyptians seems to be meant animals of which the Egyptians would abominate the killing. It has generally been supposed that either cows alone, or "cows, bulls and oxen" are meant; but recent researches seem to show that it was only white cows which it was absolutely unlawful to sacrifice. (See "Records of the Past," vol. 2. pp. 90, 96, 99; vol. 10. pp. 44, 62, etc.) Will they not stone us? Death was the legal penalty for wilfully killing any sacred animal in Egypt (Heb 2:65). On one occasion even a Roman ambassador was put to death for accidentally killing to eat (Diod. Sic. 1:88). Stoning does not appear to have been a legal punishment in Egypt, so that we must suppose Moses to have feared the people present taking the law into their own hands, seizing the sacrificers, and killing them by this ready method.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:26-27 Moses pointed out the impossibility of what Pharaoh…
8:26-27 Moses pointed out the impossibility of what Pharaoh was asking on the grounds of the Egyptians’ own prejudice: They considered all Semites to be uncultured and uncouth (see Gen 43:32). • The Hebrews were leaving Egypt in order to worship God (see, e.g., Exod 5:1; 7:16; 8:1, 20). God’s purpose for the Exodus was to lead his people into a proper relationship with him.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.