תּוֹעֵבַה
abomination
also: a disgusting thing, abominable fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
44 distinct verses where H8441 appears in the Absolute state, across 12 books. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis 1 verse
Leviticus 6 verses
- Leviticus 18:22 תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה n c fs "'You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestible.
- Leviticus 18:26 הַ/תּוֹעֵבֹ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c fp You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you;
- Leviticus 18:27 הַ/תּוֹעֵבֹ֣ת ptcl def.art + n c fp (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land became defiled);
- Leviticus 18:29 הַ/תּוֹעֵב֖וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp "'For whoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people.
- Leviticus 18:30 הַ/תּֽוֹעֵבֹת֙ ptcl def.art + n c fp Therefore you shall keep my charge, that you do not practice any of these abominable customs, which were practiced before you, and that you do not defile yourselves with them: I am Yahweh your God.'"
- Leviticus 20:13 תּוֹעֵבָ֥ה n c fs If a man lies with a male, as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Deuteronomy 7 verses
- Deuteronomy 7:26 תֽוֹעֵבָה֙ n c fs You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it: you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
- Deuteronomy 13:14 הַ/תּוֹעֵבָ֥ה ptcl def.art + n c fs then shall you inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in the midst of you,
- Deuteronomy 14:3 תּוֹעֵבָֽה n c fs You shall not eat any abominable thing.
- Deuteronomy 17:4 הַ/תּוֹעֵבָ֥ה ptcl def.art + n c fs and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then shall you inquire diligently; and, behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,
- Deuteronomy 18:12 תוֹעֲבַ֥ת הַ/תּוֹעֵבֹ֣ת n c fs cs ptcl def.art + n c fp For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh: and because of these abominations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you.
- Deuteronomy 24:4 תוֹעֵבָ֥ה n c fs her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
- Deuteronomy 32:16 בְּ/תוֹעֵבֹ֖ת prep + n c fp They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]; With abominations provoked they him to anger.
2 Kings 1 verse
2 Chronicles 1 verse
Ezra 1 verse
Psalms 1 verse
Proverbs 3 verses
- Proverbs 21:27 תּוֹעֵבָ֑ה n c fs The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination: How much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!
- Proverbs 26:25 תּוֹעֵב֣וֹת n c fp When his speech is charming, don't believe him; For there are seven abominations in his heart:
- Proverbs 28:9 תּוֹעֵבָֽה n c fs He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.
Isaiah 3 verses
- Isaiah 1:13 תּוֹעֵבָ֛ה n c fs Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies.
- Isaiah 41:24 תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה n c fs Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.
- Isaiah 44:19 לְ/תוֹעֵבָ֣ה prep + n c fs None calls to mind, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yes, also I have baked bread on the coals of it; I have roasted flesh and eaten it: and shall I make the residue of it an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?
Jeremiah 7 verses
- Jeremiah 2:7 לְ/תוֹעֵבָֽה prep + n c fs I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit of it and the goodness of it; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
- Jeremiah 6:15 תוֹעֵבָ֖ה n c fs Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 7:10 הַ/תּוֹעֵב֖וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations?
- Jeremiah 8:12 תוֹעֵבָ֖ה n c fs Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 32:35 הַ/תּוֹעֵבָ֣ה ptcl def.art + n c fs They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech; which I didn't command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
- Jeremiah 44:4 הַ/תֹּעֵבָ֥ה ptcl def.art + n c fs However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, don't do this abominable thing that I hate.
- Jeremiah 44:22 הַ/תּוֹעֵבֹ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c fp so that Yahweh could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
Ezekiel 12 verses
- Ezekiel 8:6 תּוֹעֵב֨וֹת תּוֹעֵב֖וֹת n c fp n c fp He said to me, Son of man, see you what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but you shall again see yet other great abominations.
- Ezekiel 8:9 הַ/תּוֹעֵב֣וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp He said to me, Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.
- Ezekiel 8:13 תּוֹעֵב֥וֹת n c fp He said also to me, You shall again see yet other great abominations which they do.
- Ezekiel 8:15 תּוֹעֵב֥וֹת n c fp Then said he to me, Have you seen [this], son of man? you shall again see yet greater abominations than these.
- Ezekiel 8:17 הַ/תּוֹעֵב֖וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp Then he said to me, Have you seen [this], son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and, behold, they put the branch to their nose.
- Ezekiel 9:4 הַ/תּ֣וֹעֵב֔וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp Yahweh said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in the midst of it.
- Ezekiel 16:50 תוֹעֵבָ֖ה n c fs They were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw [good].
- Ezekiel 18:12 תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה n c fs has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination,
- Ezekiel 18:13 הַ/תּוֹעֵב֤וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp has given forth on interest, and has taken increase; shall he then live? he shall not live: he has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be on him.
- Ezekiel 18:24 הַ/תּוֹעֵב֜וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die.
- Ezekiel 22:11 תּֽוֹעֵבָ֔ה n c fs One has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter.
- Ezekiel 33:26 תּוֹעֵבָ֔ה n c fs You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and you defile everyone his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land?
Malachi 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew noun תועבה centers on the idea of “abomination.” Debuting at Genesis 43:32, it then recurs through the corpus. Spanning 112 verses in 14 books, it ranks among the common words of the Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel dominates its distribution — 41 of 112 verses. Alongside “abomination” the lexicon also lists “a disgusting thing” and “abominable” — part of its full sense range. Dig into 112-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8441 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 112
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 112 distinct verses.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #369
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 369 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 112 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Ezekiel 41 verses 37%
- Proverbs 20 verses 18%
- Deuteronomy 16 verses 14%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 112 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 58 verses · 52%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 29 verses · 26%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 25 verses · 22%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Abominations 27×, Abomination 20×, Is an abomination 11×
- American Standard Version: Abominations 23×, Is an abomination 18×, Abomination 17×
- Berean Standard Bible: Abominations 52×, Is detestable 17×, Abomination 12×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Abominations 36×, Abomination 15×, Is an abomination 8×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8441 across 117 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 23 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H8441 across 117 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 27 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H8441 across 116 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8441 across 117 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 6 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. ritual sense:
- a. Isr.’s sacrifices, ת׳ מִצְרַיִם (gen. obj.) Ex 8:22(×2) (E), cf. Gn 46:34 (J); ת׳ למצרים 43:32 (J); ת׳ לְ of physical repugnance ψ 88:9. e.g. Exodus 8:22
- b. to God and his people: ת׳ of unclean food Dt 14:3; worshipper of idols Is 41:24, cf.Je 2:7; various objectionable acts: ת׳ לפני י׳ Dt 24:4; ת׳ י׳ 7:25 (חֵרֶם, cf. v 26), 17:1; 18:12; 22:5; 23:19; 27:15; offering of children (עשׂה) 12:31, cf. Je 32:35, also pl. 2 K 16:3 = 2 Ch 28:3, Dt 18:9, 12 (+ witchcraft); idolatrous practices (sometimes with other illegal acts) עשׂה (ך)ת׳ Dt 13:15; 17:4; Ez 16:50; 18:12; Mal 2:11 (intermarriage with idolaters), cf. Je 44:4; usually c. pl. noun Dt 20:18; 1 K 14:24; 2 K 21:2, 11; 2 Ch 33:2; 36:8; Je 7:10; 44:22; Ez 8:6 + 12 times Ez.; cf. תועבות 2 Ch 36:14; Ezr 9:1, 11, 14; Ez 5:9 + 18 times Ez.; of idols Dt 32:16; (תועבה) 2 K 23:13; Is 44:19 (cf. Dt 27:15); idolatrous objects 2 Ch 34:33; ‖ שׁקּוצים Je 16:18 (RJE) Ez 5:11; 11:18, 21, (צַלְמֵי ת׳) 7:20; ‖ גלולים 14:6, cf. 6:9; גִּלּוּלֵי ת׳ 16:36. e.g. Deuteronomy 14:3
- 2. ethical sense:
- a. c. gen. obj. of man, ת׳ שְׂפָתַי Pr 8:7, ת׳ מלכים 16:12, ת׳ צדיקים 29:27a, ת׳ כסילים 13:19, ת׳ רָשָׁע 29:27b, ת׳ לְאָדָם 24:9. e.g. Proverbs 8:7
- b. to God and his people: ת׳ of sacrifice of wicked Pr 21:27 (cf. 15:8), his prayers 28:9 cf. Is 1:13 (ת׳ לְ), prob. also Je 6:15 = 8:12 (of various kinds of wickedness); unchastity Lv 18:22; c. עשׂה 20:13 (H) Ez 22:11; 33:26; cf. תועבות Lv 18:26, 27, 29 (cf.v 30; H), also Pr 26:25; ת׳ י׳ Dt 25:16 Pr 3:32 + 10 times Pr., cf. 6:16. e.g. Proverbs 21:27
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.f. abomination;—abs. ת׳ Gn 43:32 + 21 times; תֹּעֵבָה Je 44:4; cstr. תּוֹעֲבַת Gn 46:34 +; pl. תּוֹעֵבוֹת Ez 8:6 +; cstr. תּוֹעֲבוֹת 6:11 +, etc.; sf. תֹּעֲבֹתָיו 2 Ch 36:8, etc.;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from תעב (taʻâb) (H8581) — to abhor.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
תּוֹעֵבָה
- , Barth Et. St. p. 28; cmp., however, עֲבָבִית, עַוִּית) that which is repulsive, abomination. Ber. 23ᵃ תפלתו ת׳ (fr. Prov. XXVIII, 9) his prayer is an abomination (unacceptable). Lev. R. s. 27 (ref. to Is. XLI, 24) אותה ת׳ שכתוב בה … מאותה הת׳ וכ׳ that abomination of which it is said (Ex. XXXII, 8) ‘they have made themselves a molten image’—of that abomination (that class of animals) bring ye an offering &c.; Tanḥ. Emor 11. Nidd. 70ᵃ; Yeb. 11ᵇ (ref. to Deut. XXIV, 4) היא ת׳ ואין בניה תּוֹעֵבִין she (the divorced woman remarried after having been another man’s wife) is an abomination, but her children are not abominations (her daughters may be married by priests); Kidd. 77ᵃ תּוֹעֵבִים. Y. Yeb. IV, 6ᵇ bot. היא ת׳ ואין הוולד ת׳. Tem. 29ᵇ; a. fr. e.g. Proverbs 28:9
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 79 distinct written forms H8441 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 19 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 106 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 112 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 43:32
- Exodus 8:26
- Leviticus 18:22
- Deuteronomy 7:25
- 2 Kings 16:3
- 2 Chronicles 28:3
- Ezra 9:1
- Psalms 88:8
- Proverbs 3:32
- Isaiah 1:13
- Jeremiah 2:7
- Ezekiel 5:9
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
