Abominable in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is Abominable?
ABOMINABLE or ABOMINA'TION
1. An abomination, or an abominable thing, is a thing hateful or detestable, as the employment or calling of shepherds was to the Egyptians. Gen 46:34. 1. Under the Mosaic law those animals and acts are called abominable the use or doing of which was prohibited. Lev 11:13 and Deut 23:18. 1. Idolatry of every kind is especially denoted by this term. Jer 44:4 and 2 Kgs 23:13. 2. So of sins in general. Isa 66:3. The Abomination of Desolation, Matt 24:15 and Dan 9:27 and Dan 12:11. probably refers to the ensigns or banners of the Roman army, with the idolatrous, Roman Standards. (After Fairhairn's "Imperial Dictionary.") and therefore abominable, images upon them, the approach of which would warn the city of its desolation. When the city should be besieged, and these idolatrous standards should be seen " in the holy place," or, more strictly, in the vicinity of the holy city, thus threatening a complete conquest and speedy destruction, it would be time for the men of Judea to flee to places of refuge to save themselves from tribulation and death. The words are hard to interpret. To the explanation given it is objected that unless the standards were worshipped they would not properly be " abominations." Others say the words refer to the "internal desecration of the temple by the Jewish zealots, under pretence of defending it." A'BRAM (father of elevation), A'BRAHAM (father of a multitude), the greatest, purest, and most venerable of the patriarchs, held in equal reverence by Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians. Gen 11:27. The leading trait in his character is unbounded trust in God ; hence he is called "the friend of God" and " the father of the faithful." He was the son of Terah, born at Ur, a city of Chaldea, which has been identified with Mugheir. The family was probably idolatrous, but all trace of monotheism may ABR ABR not have been lost. Abram would seem always to have been the consistent servant of the one God. While he was dwelling in his father's house at Ur, God directed him to leave his country and kindred and go to a land which should be shown him; promising, at the same time, to make of him a great nation, and to bless him, and to make his name great, and that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed. Obedient to the heavenly calling, Abram took Sarai his wife, and, with Terah his father and other members of the family, left Ur to remove to Canaan, and stopped at Haran in Mesopotamia. There Terah died. Abram, who was then seventy-five years old, with his wife and Lot, his nephew, pursued his journey to Canaan; and having reached Shechem, one of the oldest cities of Palestine (see Shechem), the Lord appeared to him, and repeated his promise to give him the land. Gen 12:7. A grievous famine soon visited the country, and Abram was obliged to go into Egypt. Fearful that Sarai's beauty might attract the notice of the Egyptians, and that, if they supposed her to be his wife they would kill him to secure her, he proposed that she should pass for his sister. It happened as he expected. The servants of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, commended her beauty so much that he sent for her, and took her into his house, and loaded Abram with tokens of his favor; but the Lord punished him (Pharaoh) severely, so that he sent away Abram and his wife, and all that he had. His stay in Egypt was probably very brief. Having become very rich in cattle, silver, and gold, he returned from Egypt to Canaan, and encamped between Bethel and Ai, in Southern Palestine. Lot, his nephew, had been with him, and shared his prosperity ; and it happened that his servants fell into some strife with the servants of Abram. Their property being too great for them to dwell together, Abram generously proposed to his nephew to avoid controversy by an amicable separation. He offered Lot his choice of the territory, on the right or left, as it pleased him -- a rare illustration of meekness and condescension. Lot chose to remove to the eastward, and occupy that part of the fertile plain of Jordan where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, having, perhaps, a desire to quit the wandering life. Then the Lord appeared again to Abram, and renewed the promise of the land of Canaan as his inheritance in the most explicit manner. He thence removed his tent to the oak-groves of Mamre in Hebron. In an invasion of the cities of the plain by several of the petty kings of the adjoining provinces, under the leadership of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, Sodom was taken and Lot and his family carried captive. When Abram received intelligence of it he armed his trained servants, born in his house (three hundred and eighteen in number), defeated the kings, and brought Lot and his family back to Sodom ; restoring to liberty the captives who had been taken, with all their property, of which he generously refused to take any part as the reward of his services or as the spoils of victory. On his return he was met by Melchisedek, king of Salem and priest of the most high God, to whom he gave a tenth of all that he had. Gen 14. See MELCHISEDEK. While in Hebron the Lord appeared again to Abram in a vision, repeated to him the promises, and accompanied them with the gracious declaration of his favor. He appointed a certain sacrifice for him to offer, and toward night caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, attended by a horror of great darkness, during which there were revealed to him some of the most important events in his future history and in that of his posterity, which were all accomplished in due time and with wonderful exactness. The revelation related -- 1. To the captivity of Israel by the Egyptians and their severe and protracted bondage ; 2. To the judgments which Egypt should suffer because of their oppression of God's chosen people, and the circumstances under which they should leave Egypt; 3. To Abram's death and burial; and, 4, to the return of his posterity to the promised land. In the same day the covenant respecting the land of promise was renewed and confirmed with the strongest expressions of divine favor. Sarai, however, was childless, and she proposed to Abraham that Hagar, an Egyptian woman living 17 ABR ABR with them, should be his concubine ; by whom he had a son, called Ishmael. He was then in his eighty-sixth year. Gen 16. At ninety-nine years of age he was favored with another remarkable vision. The Almighty was revealed to him in such a manner that he was filled with awe and fell upon his face, and we are told that "God talked with him." The promise respecting the great increase of his posterity and the possession of Canaan was repeated in the most solemn and explicit terms; his name was changed from Abram (a high father) to Abraham (father of a great multitude), and the circumcision of every male child at eight days old was established as a token of the covenant between him and God. See CIRCUMCISION. At the same time the name of Sarai (my princess) was changed to Sarah (the princess), and a promise was given to Abraham that Sarah should have a son and be the mother of nations and kings. It seemed so entirely out of the course of nature that they should become parents at their advanced age that Abraham, filled with reverence and joyful gratitude, fell upon his face "and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" Nevertheless, against hope he believed in hope; and being not weak in faith, he staggered not at the promise of God, but was fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform; and his faith was imputed to him for righteousness. Rom 4:18-22. Abraham, finding that the blessings of the covenant were to be bestowed on his future offspring, immediately thought of Ishmael, in whom he had probably before supposed the promises were to be fulfilled, and he uttered the solemn and affecting prayer, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" God heard him, and almost while he was yet speaking answered him by making known to him his great purposes respecting Ishmael. Gen 17:20 and Gen 25:16. As soon as the vision had closed, Abraham hastened to obey the divine command, and with Ishmael, his son, and all the men of his house, was circumcised in the self-same day. He was not long without another divine communication. As he sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day three men approached him. He received them with all the courtesy and hospitality customary in the East, and after they had refreshed themselves they inquired of him respecting Sarah and repeated the promise respecting the birth of her son. It was on this occasion, or in connection with these circumstances, that a divine testimony was given to the patriarchal character of Abraham. Gen 18:19. It was because of his faithfulness that he was favored with a revelation of God's purposes respecting the devoted cities of the plain, and with an opportunity to plead for them; and it was for Abraham's sake, and probably in answer to his prayers, that Lot and his family were rescued from the sudden destruction which came upon Sodom. After this, Abraham removed to Gerar, perhaps because the Amorites, with whom he was in alliance, had been driven from Hebron by the Hittites. Here he made a second attempt to have Sarah taken for his sister. See ABIMELECH. Here, also, the prediction was fulfilled respecting the birth of a son. Sarah had a son, whom he called Isaac, and who was duly circumcised on the eighth day. When Isaac was weaned, Abraham made a feast. Ishmael, being then a lad of thirteen years, mocked Isaac, quite possibly without malicious intent. This roused the jealousy of Sarah, who urged Abraham to drive out Hagar and her son. Abraham, although unwilling to do this injustice, at last obeyed at the command of God. Thus it came to pass that the prophecy of the wild life Ishmael was to lead was realized.Gen 21:10-13. Abraham so obviously enjoyed the favor and blessing of God in all that he did that Abimelech, the king, proposed to make with him a covenant of perpetual friendship; and a matter of wrong about a well, of which Abimelech's servants had violently deprived Abraham, was thus happily adjusted. This transaction was at a place which was there after called Beer-sheba (the well of the oath, or the well of swearing). Gen 21:23-31. ABS The events of many years are now passed over in silence, but the scene next related shows how worthy Abraham was to be called the father of the faithful. He was commanded to take his son, his only son, Isaac, then a young man, and to offer him up for a burnt-offering upon a distant mountain. Without an inquiry or murmuring word, and with a prompt submission, Abraham obeyed the command. A journey of three days was accomplished. Every preparation for the offering was made, and the knife was uplifted to slay his son, when his purpose was arrested by a voice from Heaven requiring him to spare the lad. A ram was provided in the neighboring thicket, which he took and offered up ; and, after having been favored with special tokens of the divine approbation, he returned with his son to Beer-sheba. This grand trial and proof of the patriarch's faith took place upon Mount Moriah (or, as others suppose, on Mount Gerizim). In commemoration of it he gave to the place the name Jehovah-jireh {the Lord will provide), intimating a general truth respecting the divine faithfulness and care, and in prophetical allusion to the great sacrifice which was to be offered for the sins of mankind. Gen 22:14. At the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years Sarah died, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron at Hebron, for a family burial-place, and there buried his wife. Gen 23:19, Gen 23:20, Isaac had now arrived at mature age, and Abraham called one of his servants, probably Eliezer, Gen 15:2, and made him promise to obtain a wife for Isaac, not among the Canaanites, but in Abraham's native country and from among his own kindred. This enterprise terminated successfully, and every desire of the patriarch respecting Isaac's marriage was answered. Gen 24. Abraham married a second time and had several sons, but he made Isaac his sole heir, having in his lifetime distributed gifts among the other children, who were now dispersed. He died in peace at the age of one hundred and seventy five years, and was buried by Isaac and Ishmael in the same sepulchre with Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah. Gen 25:8. Abraham's Oak, near Hebron. Gen 13:18 It is now in the possession of the Mohammedans, and jealously guarded by them as a most sacred spot beneath the great mosque of Hebron. See Machpelah On Abraham's Oak, see Hebron. Abraham's Bosom. See Bosom.

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Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'abominable' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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