出埃及记 8:26

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

摩西回答：“決不可以這樣行，因為我們要把埃及人看為可憎的祭物獻給耶和華我們的　神；如果我們把埃及人看為可憎的祭物在他們眼前獻上，難道他們不拿石頭打死我們嗎？

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
摩 西 说 ： 这 样 行 本 不 相 宜 ， 因 为 我 们 要 把 埃 及 人 所 厌 恶 的 祭 祀 耶 和 华 ─ 我 们 的 　 神 ； 若 把 埃 及 人 所 厌 恶 的 在 他 们 眼 前 献 为 祭 ， 他 们 岂 不 拿 石 头 打 死 我 们 麽 ？

Contextual Overview

²⁰ The Lord told Moses, "Get up early in the morning, and meet the king of Egypt as he goes out to the river. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go so they can worship me. ²¹ If you don't let them go, I will send swarms of flies into your houses. The flies will be on you, your officers, and your people. The houses of Egypt will be full of flies, and they will be all over the ground, too. ²² But I will not treat the Israelites the same as the Egyptian people. There will not be any flies in the land of Goshen, where my people live. By this you will know that I, the Lord , am in this land. ²³ I will treat my people differently from your people. This miracle will happen tomorrow.'" ²⁴ So the Lord did as he had said, and great swarms of flies came into the king's palace and his officers' houses. All over Egypt flies were ruining the land. ²⁵ The king called for Moses and Aaron and told them, "Offer sacrifices to your God here in this country." ²⁶ But Moses said, "It wouldn't be right to do that, because the Egyptians hate the sacrifices we offer to the Lord our God. If they see us offering sacrifices they hate, they will throw stones at us and kill us. ²⁷ Let us make a three-day journey into the desert. We must offer sacrifices to the Lord our God there, as the Lord told us to do." ²⁸ The king said, "I will let you go so that you may offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the desert, but you must not go very far away. Now go and pray for me." ²⁹ Moses said, "I will leave and pray to the Lord , and he will take the flies away from you, your officers, and your people tomorrow. But do not try to trick us again. Do not stop the people from going to offer sacrifices to the Lord ."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

It is not: Exodus 3:18, 2 Corinthians 6:14-17

we shall: Genesis 43:32, Genesis 46:34, Deuteronomy 7:25, Deuteronomy 7:26, Deuteronomy 12:30, Deuteronomy 12:31, Ezra 9:1, Isaiah 44:19

the abomination: i.e. The animals which they worshipped; for an account of which, see note on Exodus 9:3. 1 Kings 11:5-7, 2 Kings 23:13

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Moses said, it is not meet so to do,.... It being the command and will of God that they should go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice there; and besides it was dangerous, the Egyptians might be provoked by their sacrifices to fall upon them, and kill them;

for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God; by which Moses is not to be understood as calling the idols of Egypt an abomination, as being so to God and to all good men, that were not idolaters; for though they were, Moses would scarcely call them so before Pharaoh, when he could have made use of another word as well; but his meaning is, that the Israelites would sacrifice that which would be an abomination, and very detestable to the Egyptians for them to do. And so the Targum of Jonathan;

"for the sheep, which are the idols of the Egyptians, we shall take and offer before the Lord our God.''

Herodotus w says, it was not accounted with the Egyptians lawful to sacrifice any creature but swine, and male oxen, and calves, such as were clean; but nevertheless, as after these times the Egyptians did offer such creatures as oxen, sheep, and goats, at least some of them did, Bishop Patrick thinks this may only refer to the rites and ceremonies of sacrificing, and to the qualities and condition of the beasts that were offered, about which the Egyptians in later ages were very curious; however, be it which it will, something might be done which would displease the Egyptians, and therefore it was best to sacrifice out of their land:

lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? rise up in a body in great wrath, and fall upon us and slay us, by taking up stones and casting at us, or by some means or another dispatch us while offering; just as Pilate mingled the blood of the Galilaeans with their sacrifices, Luke 13:1 and the Egyptians were a people that greatly resented any indignity done to their deities, and would prosecute it with great wrath and fury; as appears from an instance which Diodorus Siculus x reports he was an eyewitness of, as that a certain Roman having killed a cat, (which is an Egyptian deity,) the mob rose about his house, so that neither the princes sent by the king of Egypt to entreat them, nor the common dread of the Roman name, could deliver the man from punishment, though he did it imprudently, and not on purpose.

w Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 41, 42, 45. x Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 75.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 8:26. 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 -------------

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.