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abominations in the Bible
This word is used in the following ways in the Bible:
Daniel (11:31), in that section of his prophecies which is generally interpreted as referring to the fearful calamities that were to fall on the Jews in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, says, “And they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” Antiochus Epiphanes caused an altar to be erected on the altar of burnt-offering, on which sacrifices were offered to Jupiter Olympus. (Compare 1 Macc. 1:57—apocrypha). This was the abomination of the desolation of Jerusalem.
The same language is employed in Dan. 9:27 (compare Matthew 24:15), where the reference is probably to the image-crowned standards which the Romans set up at the east gate of the temple (A.D. 70), and to which they paid idolatrous honors. “Almost the entire religion of the Roman camp consisted in worshipping the ensign, swearing by the ensign, and in preferring the ensign before all other gods.” These ensigns were an “abomination” to the Jews, the “abomination of desolation.”
OCCULT—All magical arts were distinctly prohibited under penalty of death in the Mosaic law. The Jews were commanded not to learn the “abomination” of the people of the Promised Land (Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:9-14)—includes witchcraft, soothsayer, one who interprets omens, sorcerer, one who conjures spells, a medium, a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.”
This word is also used symbolically of sin in general (Isaiah 66:3); an idol (44:19); the ceremonies of the apostate Church of Rome (Rev. 17:4); a detestable act (Ezek. 22:11).
Pharaoh was so moved by the fourth plague, that while he refused the demand of Moses, he offered a compromise, granting to the Israelites permission to hold their festival and offer their sacrifices in Egypt. This permission could not be accepted, because Moses said they would have to sacrifice “the abomination of the Egyptians” (Exodus 8:26); i.e., the cow or ox, which all the Egyptians held as sacred, and which they regarded it as sacrilegious to kill.
Every shepherd was “an abomination” unto the Egyptians (Genesis 46:34). This aversion to shepherds, such as the Hebrews, arose probably from the fact that Lower and Middle Egypt had formerly been held in oppressive subjection by a tribe of nomad shepherds (the Hyksos), who had been expelled, and partly also perhaps from this other fact that the Egyptians detested the lawless habits of wandering shepherds.
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ABOMINATION OF THE EGYPTIANS—To express the idea that the Egyptians considered themselves as defiled when they ate with strangers (Genesis 43:32). The Jews followed the same practice, holding it unlawful to eat or drink with foreigners (John 18:28; Acts 10:28; 11:3).
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