Hebrew word · H8263

שֶׁ֫קֶץ

sheketz

detestation

A creature to be treated as detestable. It is a technical word in the food and purity laws, mainly for forbidden water creatures, flying insects and small swarming animals. It is distinct from the related word shiqquts, usually used of idols and idolatrous objects.

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

detestable thing or idol, an unclean thing, an abomination, detestation

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 66:17

Range of meaning

A creature to be treated as detestable. It is a technical word in the food and purity laws, mainly for forbidden water creatures, flying insects and small swarming animals. It is distinct from the related word shiqquts, usually used of idols and idolatrous objects.

Against the English

"The abomination" (KJV), "abominable things" (WEB) and "vermin" (BSB) differ a good deal. "Abomination" sounds like a sweeping moral verdict, while "vermin" catches the sort of creature in view but loses the sense of a category established by divine law.

How it drifted

"Abomination" became a word for general moral outrage in English, and it is used to translate several different Hebrew words. This one has a narrow home in the purity laws.

Used elsewhere in the period

Almost all of its uses are in Leviticus (7:21; 11:10-13, 20, 23, 41-42). Outside Leviticus it occurs only here and at Ezekiel 8:10, also in a scene of illicit worship. The Septuagint uses the plural bdelygmata, "loathsome things."

From the study of Leviticus 11:12

Range of meaning

A noun from the root sh-q-ts, 'to detest, loathe, treat as something to recoil from'. As a noun, sheqets is almost wholly a food-law and cult word: it names animals Israel must not eat (Lev 7:21; 11:10–13, 20, 23, 41–42; Isa 66:17; Ezek 8:10). The verb in the intensive form (shiqqets) means 'to treat as detestable' (Lev 11:11, 13, 43; 20:25). A related noun, shiqquts, is used mostly for idols and idol-worship (e.g. 1 Kgs 11:5; Dan 11:31, 'the abomination that makes desolate').

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT say 'abomination'. BSB, ESV and NIV say 'detestable'. 'Abomination' today sounds like the worst kind of moral evil, something shocking or vile. 'Detestable' is closer, but it can suggest a feeling of disgust a person is supposed to have. The Hebrew is mainly about status and the response it requires: this is in the category Israel shuns and does not eat.

How it drifted

The KJV used 'abomination' for several different Hebrew words (sheqets, shiqquts, toʿevah, piggul). English readers cannot tell them apart. Over time the English word took on a strong sense of moral outrage that the dietary use of sheqets does not carry by itself.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint, LXX) renders it bdelygma ('a loathsome thing'). It uses the same word for toʿevah in many places, so the blurring of these words is already ancient. Later Jewish law kept sheqets as a technical category for forbidden creatures. In Leviticus 11 the land animals of vv. 2–8 are called tame' ('unclean'), while water creatures (vv. 10–12), birds (v. 13) and winged swarming things (v. 20) are called sheqets.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 9

  1. Leviticus 7:21 שֶׁ֣קֶץ detestable thing

    If one touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any unclean, detestable thing, and then eats any of the meat of the peace offering that belongs to the LORD, that person must be cut off from his people.”

  2. Leviticus 11:10 שֶׁ֥קֶץ [are] detestable thing[s]

    But the following among all the teeming life and creatures in the water are detestable to you: everything in the seas or streams that does not have fins and scales.

  3. Leviticus 11:11 וְשֶׁ֖קֶץ and detestable thing[s]

    They shall be an abomination to you; you must not eat their meat, and you must detest their carcasses.

  4. Leviticus 11:12 שֶׁ֥קֶץ [is] a detestable thing

    Everything in the water that does not have fins and scales shall be detestable to you.

    Here: Leviticus' special word for animals Israel must treat as off-limits: something to be shunned and recoiled from, and above all not eaten. It comes first in its clause for emphasis: 'a detested thing, that is what it is'.

  5. Leviticus 11:13 שֶׁ֣קֶץ [are] detestable thing[s]

    Additionally, you are to detest the following birds, and they must not be eaten because they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

  6. Leviticus 11:20 שֶׁ֥קֶץ [is] a detestable thing

    All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you.

  7. Leviticus 11:23 שֶׁ֥קֶץ [is] a detestable thing

    All other flying insects that have four legs are detestable to you.

  8. Leviticus 11:41 שֶׁ֥קֶץ [is] a detestable thing

    Every creature that moves along the ground is detestable; it must not be eaten.

  9. Leviticus 11:42 שֶׁ֥קֶץ [are] a detestable thing

    Do not eat any creature that moves along the ground, whether it crawls on its belly or walks on four or more feet; for such creatures are detestable.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 66:17 וְהַשֶּׁ֖קֶץ and the detestable thing

    “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to enter the groves—to follow one in the center of those who eat the flesh of swine and vermin and rats—will perish together,” declares the LORD.

    Here: "The detestable creature," a category word borrowed directly from the food laws of Leviticus 11, not a general term for outrage. It widens the menu from one named animal to the whole class of forbidden creatures.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 8:10 שֶׁ֔קֶץ detestable thing

    So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.