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תּוֹעֵבַה

toeva · abomination

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H8441 · appears 117 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

toeva (תּוֹעֵבַה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “abomination”.

Something that a people or God rejects with disgust, above all idolatry and the practices God forbids; also a custom another people will not tolerate.

How to say it

to·e·va

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

  1. What is repulsive, above all idols.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Abomination: something rejected with disgust. BDB: something disgusting, especially in a moral sense; specifically idolatry or an idol. It can be what a people detests or, more often, what YHWH detests.

Historical and cultural background

Genesis gives two customs of Egypt: the Egyptians did not eat with the Hebrews, “for that is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Genesis 43:32), and “every shepherd of flocks is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Genesis 46:34).

How we translate it

“Abominations” 62 times, “abomination” 53, “abominable” 2 (Leviticus 18:30, “the abominable statutes”, where the word describes another). The same family of words is always kept so that the reader recognizes the term in the laws, in the prophets and in Proverbs.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

  • abominations ×62
  • abomination ×53
  • abominable ×2

Where it appears

  • Genesis 43:32

    They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, for the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

  • Genesis 46:34

    you shall say, ‘Your servants have been men of livestock from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd of flocks is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

  • Exodus 8:26

    But Moses said, “It is not right to do so, for what we sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim is an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is an abomination to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?

  • Leviticus 18:22

    And you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.

  • Leviticus 18:26

    But you shall keep my statutes and my rules, and you shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the resident alien who resides among you

  • Leviticus 18:27

    (for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done, and the land became unclean),

  • Leviticus 18:29

    For whoever does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.

  • Leviticus 18:30

    So you shall keep my charge, not to do any of the abominable statutes that were done before you, and you shall not make yourselves unclean by them. I am YHWH your Elohim.”

  • Leviticus 20:13

    And a man who lies with a male as one lies with a woman, both of them have done an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is on them.

  • Deuteronomy 7:25

    The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver and gold on them or take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

  • Deuteronomy 7:26

    And you shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a thing devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is a thing devoted to destruction.

  • Deuteronomy 12:31

    You shall not act this way toward YHWH your Elohim, for every abomination to YHWH, which he hates, they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

  • Deuteronomy 13:14

    then you shall seek and investigate and ask thoroughly. And look, if it is true and the matter certain, that this abomination has been done among you,

  • Deuteronomy 14:3

    You shall not eat any abomination.

  • Deuteronomy 17:1

    You shall not sacrifice to YHWH your Elohim an ox or a lamb that has a defect, anything bad, for it is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

  • Deuteronomy 17:4

    and it is told to you and you hear of it, then you shall seek thoroughly. And look, if it is true and the matter certain, that this abomination has been done in Israel,

  • Deuteronomy 18:9

    When you come into the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.

  • Deuteronomy 18:12

    For an abomination to YHWH is everyone who does these things, and because of these abominations YHWH your Elohim is dispossessing them before you.

  • Deuteronomy 20:18

    so that they do not teach you to do according to all their abominations that they have done for their gods, and you sin against YHWH your Elohim.

  • Deuteronomy 22:5

    A man’s article shall not be on a woman, and a man shall not put on a woman’s garment, for an abomination to YHWH your Elohim is everyone who does these things.

  • Deuteronomy 23:18

    You shall not bring the wages of a prostitute or the price of a dog into the house of YHWH your Elohim for any vow, for an abomination to YHWH your Elohim are both of them.

  • Deuteronomy 24:4

    her first husband, who sent her away, cannot take her again to be his wife after she has been made unclean, for that is an abomination before YHWH. And you shall not cause the land to sin, the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance.

  • Deuteronomy 25:16

    For everyone who does these things, everyone who does injustice, is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

  • Deuteronomy 27:15

    ‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved image or a cast image, an abomination to YHWH, the work of the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

  • Deuteronomy 32:16

    They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.

  • 1 Kings 14:24

    And there were also sacred prostitutes in the land; they did according to all the abominations of the nations that YHWH had dispossessed from before the sons of Israel.

  • 2 Kings 16:3

    He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom YHWH dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

  • 2 Kings 21:2

    He did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, according to the abominations of the nations whom YHWH dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

  • 2 Kings 21:11

    “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, he has done more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also sin with his idols,

  • 2 Kings 23:13

    The high places that were facing Jerusalem, which were to the right of the Mount of Destruction, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Astarte, the detestable thing of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king made unclean.

  • 2 Chronicles 28:3

    He burned incense in the Valley of Ben-hinnom and burned his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom YHWH had dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

  • 2 Chronicles 33:2

    He did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, according to the abominations of the nations whom YHWH had dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

  • 2 Chronicles 34:33

    Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands that belonged to the sons of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel serve YHWH their Elohim. All his days they did not turn away from following YHWH, the Elohim of their fathers.

  • 2 Chronicles 36:8

    The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations that he did, and what was found against him, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

  • 2 Chronicles 36:14

    Also all the officials of the priests and the people multiplied acts of unfaithfulness according to all the abominations of the nations, and they made unclean the house of YHWH that he had sanctified in Jerusalem.

  • Ezra 9:1

    And when these things were finished, the officials approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian, and the Amorite.

  • Ezra 9:11

    which you commanded by the hand of your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess it is a land of impurity through the impurity of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, with which they have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness.

  • Ezra 9:14

    shall we again break your commandments and intermarry with the peoples of these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you made an end of us, so that there is no remnant or escapees?

  • Psalms 88:8

    You have put far my acquaintances from me; you have made me an abomination to them; I am shut in, and I will not go out.

  • Proverbs 3:32

    for the devious person is an abomination to YHWH, but with the upright is his intimate counsel.

And 77 more times.