| Exodus 8:26
| And Moses said: It cannot be so: for we shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: now if we kill those things which the Egyptians worship, in their presence, they will stone us.
| The abominations, etc. That is, the things they worship for gods: oxen, rams, etc. 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. 1:7; Genesis 43:16.) Their belief in the transmigration of souls, perhaps, induced them to abstain from the immolation of beasts. (Calmet)
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