ABOMINATION (riVn and ) Sept.
and New Test.—e. g., Matt. xxiv. for both). These words describe generally any object of detestation or disgust (Lev. xviii. 22; Deut. vii. 25); and are applied to an impure or de testable action (Ezek. xxii. i r ; xxxiii. 26 ; Mal. ii. etc.); to anything causing a ceremonial pollu tion (Gen. xliii. 32 ; xlvi. 34 ; Deut. xiv. 3) ; but more especially to idols (Lev. xviii. 22 ; xx. 13 j Deut. vii. 26 ; 1 Kings xi. 5, 7 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 13) ; and also to food offered to idols (Zech. ix. 7); and to filth of every kind (Nahum iii. 6). There are two or three of the texts in which the word occurs, to which, on account of their peculiar interest or difficulty, especial attention has been drawn. The first is Gen. xliii. 32: 'The Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination (rizzn) unto the Egyptians.' This is best ex plained by the fact .that the Egyptians considered themselves ceremonially defiled if they ate with any strangers. The primary reason appears to have been that the cow was the most sacred animal among the Egyptians, and the eating of it was abhorrent to them; whereas it was both eaten and sacrificed by the Jews and most other nations, who on that account were abominable in their eyes. It was for this, as we learn from Herodotus (ii. 41), that no Egyptian man or woman would kiss a Greek on the mouth, or would use the cleaver of a Greek, or his spit, or his dish, or would taste the flesh of even clean beef (that is, of oxen) that had been cut with a Grecian carving-knife. It is true that Sir J. G. Wilkinson (Anc. Egyptians, iii. 358) ascribes this to the repugnance of the fastidiously clean Egyptians to the comparatively foul habits of their Asiatic and other neighbours : but it seems scarcely fair to take the facts of the father of history, and ascribe to them any other than the very satis factory reason which he assigns. We collect then that it was as foreigners, not pointedly as Hebrews, that it was an abomination for the Egyptians to eat with the brethren of Joseph. The Jews themselves subsequently exemplified the same practice; for in later times they held it unlawful to eat or drink with foreigners in their houses, or even to enter their houses, (John xviii. 28; Acts x. 28; xi. 3); for not only were the houses of Gentiles unclean (Illichn. Oholoth, 18, 7), but they themselves rendered un clean those in whose houses they lodged (Maimon. Mishcab a Morheb, C. 12, 12); which was carry ing the matter a step further than the Egyptians (see also Mitzvoth Toni, pr. 148). We do not however trace these examples before the Captivity.
The second passage is Gen. xlvi. 34. Joseph is telling his brethren how to conduct themselves when introduced to the king of Egypt ; and he instructs them that when asked concerning their occupation they should answer : 'Thy servants' trade bath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we and also oar fathers.' This last clause has emphasis, as shelving that they were hereditary nomade pastors; and the reason is added: 'That ye may dwell in the land of Goshen,—for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyp tians.' In the former instance they were an
abomination' as strangest, with whom the Egyp tians could not eat; here they are a further abomin tion as nomade shepherds, whom it was certain that the Egyptians, for that reason, would locate in the border land of Goshen, and not in the heart of the country. That it was nomade shepherds, or Bedouins, and not simply shepherds, who were abominable to the Egyptians, is evinced by the fact that the Egyptians themselves paid great atten tion to the rearing of cattle. This is shewn by their sculptures and paintings, as well as by the offer of this very king of Egypt to make such of Jacob's sons as were men of activity overseers of his cattle' (xlvii. 6). For this aversion to nomade pastors two reasons are given; and it is not neces sary that we should choose between them, for both of them were, it is most likely, concurrently true. One is, that the inhabitants of Lower and Middle Egypt had previously been invaded by, and had remained for many years subject to, a tribe of nomade shepherds, who had only of late been ex pelled, and a native dynasty restored—the grievous oppression of the Egyptians by these pastoral invaders, and the insult with which their religion had been treated. The other reason, not neces sarily superseding the former, but rather strength ening it, is, that the Egyptians, as a settled and civilized people, detested the lawless and predatory habits of the wandering shepherd tribes, which then, as now, bounded the valley of the Nile, and occupied the Arabias. Their constantly aggressive operations upon the frontiers, and upon all the great lines of communication, must, with respect to them, have given intensity to the odium with which all strangers were regarded. If any proof of this were wanting, it is found in the fact (attested by the Rev. R. M. Macbriar and others) that, sunk as Modern Egypt is, there is still such a marked and irreconcilable difference of ideas and habits between the inhabitants and the Bedouins, whose camps are often in the near neighbourhood of their towns and villages, that the latter are regarded with dislike and fear, and no friendly intercourse exists between them. We know that the same state of feeling prevails between the settled inhabitants and the Bedouins along the Tigris and Euphrates.
The third marked use of this word again occurs in Egypt. The king tells the Israelites to offer to their god the sacrifices which they desired, without going to the desert for that purpose. To which Moses objects, that they should have to sacrifice to the Lord abomination of the Egyptians,' who would thereby be highly exasperated against them (Exod. viii. 25, 26). A reference back to the first explanation shews that this ' abomination' yeas the cow, the only animal which all the Egyp tians agreed in holding sacred; whereas, in the great sacrifice which the Hebrews proposed to hold, not only would heifers be offered, but the people would feast upon their flesh.