Exodus 8:25 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Go ye, sacrifice—in the land— In the 8th verse Pharaoh allows them to sacrifice, without specifying the place: here he confines them to the land of Goshen, to which Moses objects; as the animals they were to sacrifice to the Lord being those which were worshipped by the Egyptians, it would be such an affront and abomination to them as would endanger the lives of the Israelites. This is the meaning of the phrase, Exodus 8:26 shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians? See Genesis 43:32 and Gen 47:34. The Chaldee paraphrase renders the latter part of Exodus 8:26, "for we shall take the animals, which the Egyptians worship, to sacrifice to the Lord our God." The Syriac, "for, if we shall sacrifice the gods of the Egyptians before their eyes, they will stone us." Herodotus, says Bishop Warburton, expressly tells us, that the Egyptians esteemed it a profanation to sacrifice any kind of cattle, except swine, bulls, clean calves, and geese; and that heifers, rams, and goats, were held sacred, either in one province or another:—and, if he came any thing near the truth in his account of the early superstition of Egypt, the Israelites, we see, could not avoid sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians. And with what deadly hatred and revenge they pursued such imaginary impieties, the same Herodotus informs us in another place. See Herod, lib. ii. c. 42. 45. 65. and Div. Leg. vol. ii. part i. p. 36.