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Exodus 8:26

in Exodus 8

But Moses replied, “It would not be right to do that, because the sacrifices we offer to the LORD our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. If we offer sacrifices that are detestable before the Egyptians, will they not stone us?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

KJV

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?

This verse in Exodus 8

Commentary

10 notes on this verse

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

Letter 27.1-3 · Written before 397.

You tell me that you have felt a difficulty in the text We shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. But you had the means of solving it, for it is written in the book of Genesis, that a shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians, and this not on account of the shepherd himself, but of his flocks. For the Egyptians were tillers of the ground, but Abraham and Jacob, and afterwards Moses and David, were shepherds, and in this function exercised a certain kingly discipline.

This site's exposition

Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land

on Exodus 8:25-26

This is the first of Pharaoh's counteroffers, and every one that follows works the same way, by granting the worship and keeping the people. Sacrifice inside Egypt would leave Israel where it is and turn the service into a licensed local custom, which is the shape of the offers at 10:11 and 10:24 as well. Moses refuses on a practical ground, that what Israel offers is an abomination to the Egyptians, and Genesis 46:34 had already recorded that every shepherd is an abomination unto them.

This site's exposition

would be detestable to the Egyptians

Moses refuses the offer of verse 25 to sacrifice inside Egypt. Israel's offerings would be detestable to the Egyptians, and a public sacrifice could provoke them to stone the worshippers. Adam Clarke takes the detestable things to be animals Egypt held sacred, while Ambrose of Milan links the verse with the statement in Genesis that shepherds were detestable to the Egyptians.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Pacian of Barcelona

Commentary (church-history corpus) · Written before 391.

proposed

The Egyptians disdained the eating of sheep. But what the Egyptians abhor, the Israelites offer to God. The unjust despise a clean conscience as weak and abject, but the just turn it into a sacrifice to God of virtue. The righteous, as they worship God, …

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Paterius

EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, EXODUS 13 · Written before 606.

proposed

The Egyptians disdained the eating of sheep. But what the Egyptians abhor, the Israelites offer to God. The unjust despise a clean conscience as weak and abject, but the just turn it into a sacrifice to God of virtue. The righteous, as they worship God, …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And Moses said, it is not meet so to do,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

It would be an abomination to God should they offer the Egyptian sacrifices, and an abomination to the Egyptians should they offer to God their own sacrifices, as they ought; so that they could not sacrifice in the land without incurring the displeasure either of their God or of their task-masters; therefore he insists: We will go three days' journey into the wilderness,

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

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.
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Pharaoh called for Moses, . . . Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land, &c.--Between impatient anxiety to be freed from this scourge and a reluctance on the part of the Hebrew bondsmen, the king followed the course of expediency; he proposed to let them free to engage in their religious rites within any part of the kingdom.
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.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֗הMoses

    moshehH4872765 times

  • לֹ֤אnot

    lo'H38085168 times

  • נָכוֹן֙[is] established

    nakhonH3559217 times

  • לַעֲשׂ֣וֹתto do

    laasotH62132628 times

  • כֵּ֔ןthus

    kenH3651771 times

  • כִּ֚יfor

    kiH35884482 times

  • תּוֹעֲבַ֣ת[the] abomination of

    toavatH8441

  • מִצְרַ֔יִםEgypt

    mitzrayimH4714641 times

  • נִזְבַּ֖חwe will sacrifice

    nizbachH2076134 times

  • לַיהוָ֣הto Yahweh

    layahwehH30686520 times

  • אֱלֹהֵ֑ינוּGod our

    ʾeloheinuH4302601 times

  • הֵ֣ןhere!

    henH2005316 times

  • נִזְבַּ֞חwe will sacrifice

    nizbachH2076134 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • תּוֹעֲבַ֥ת[the] abomination of

    toavatH8441

  • מִצְרַ֛יִםEgypt

    mitzrayimH4714641 times

  • לְעֵינֵיהֶ֖םto eyes their

    leeineihemH5869887 times

  • וְלֹ֥אand not

    velo'H38085168 times

  • יִסְקְלֻֽנוּ׃will they stone? us

    yiskelunuH561922 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Isaiah 44:19

    And no one considers in his heart, no one has the knowledge or insight to say, “I burned half of it in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 27:15

      ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people…

    • 1 Kings 11:5

      Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

    • 1 Kings 11:7

      At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.

    • Ezekiel 40:4

      “Son of man,” he said to me, “look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought…

    • Isaiah 45:20

      Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood and pray to a god that cannot save.

  • Through

    Genesis 43:32

    They separately served Joseph, his brothers, and the Egyptians. They ate separately because the Egyptians would not eat with the Hebrews, since that was detestable to them.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 46:34

      you are to say, ‘Your servants have raised livestock ever since our youth—both we and our fathers.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable…

  • Through

    Genesis 46:34

    you are to say, ‘Your servants have raised livestock ever since our youth—both we and our fathers.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 43:32

      They separately served Joseph, his brothers, and the Egyptians. They ate separately because the Egyptians would not eat with the Hebrews, since that was detestable to them.

    • Genesis 37:12

      Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem.

About Exodus

The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, Letter 27.1-3; Ambrose of Milan, Letter 27; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pacian of Barcelona, Commentary (church-history corpus) and Paterius, EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, EXODUS 13.