SPECIAL TOPIC: ABOMINATIONS

SPECIAL TOPIC: ABOMINATION

"Abominations" (BDB 1072) can refer to several things:

1. things related to Egyptians:

a. they loathe eating with Hebrews, Gen. 43:32

b. they loathe shepherds, Gen. 46:34

c. they loathe Hebrew sacrifices, Exod. 8:26

2. things related to YHWH's feelings toward Israel's actions:

a. unclean food, Deut. 14:3-20

b. idols, Deut. 7:25; 27:15

c. pagan spiritists, Deut. 18:9,12

d. burning children to Molech, Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut. 12:31; 18:9,12; 2 Kgs. 16:3; 17:17-18; 21:6; Jer. 32:35

e. Canaanite idolatry, Deut. 13:14; 17:4; 20:17-18; 32:16; Isa. 44:19; Jer. 16:18; Ezek. 5:11; 6:9; 11:18,21; 14:6; 16:50; 18:12

f. sacrificing blemished animals, Deut. 17:1 (cf. 15:19-23; Mal. 1:12-13)

g. sacrificing to idols, Jer. 44:4-5

h. remarrying a woman who you have previously divorced, Deut. 24:2

i. women wearing man's clothes (possibly Canaan worship), Deut. 22:5

j. money from cultic prostitution (Canaanite worship), Deut. 23:18

k. Israel's idolatry, Jer. 2:7

l. homosexuality (possibly Canaanite worship), Lev. 18:22; 20:13

m. use of false weights, Deut. 25:15-16; Pro. 11:1; 20:23

n. food laws violated (possibly Canaanite worship), Deut. 14:3

3. Examples in Wisdom Literature:

a. Proverbs 3:32; 6:16-19; 11:1,20; 12:22; 15:8,9,26; 16:5; 17:15; 20:10,23; 21:27; 28:9

b. Psalms 88:8

c. Job 30:10

4. There is a recurrent eschatological phrase "abomination of desolation," which is used in Daniel (cf. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). It seems to refer to three different occasions (multiple fulfillment prophecy):

a. Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the interbiblical Maccabean period (cf. 1 Macc. 1:54,59; 2 Macc. 6:1-2)

b. the Roman general (later Emperor), Titus, who sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple in a.d. 70 (cf. Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14; Luke 21:20)

c. an end-time world leader called "the man of lawlessness" (cf. 2 Thess. 2:3-4) or "the Antichrist" (cf. 1 John 2:18; 4:3; Revelation 13)