Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 8:26

"And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?" — Exodus 8:26 (ASV)

It is not meet so to do.—Pressed to remain “in the land” and sacrifice, Moses deemed it right to explain to the king why this was impossible. The Israelites would have to “sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians”—that is, animals whose killing the Egyptians abominated; and if they did this in the presence of Egyptians, a riot would be certain to break out—perhaps a civil war would ensue. The animal worship of the Egyptians is a certain and generally recognised fact. It seemed to the Greeks and Romans the most striking characteristic of the Egyptian religion. (Cicero, De Natura Deorum 1:36; etc.) The sacrificial animals of the Hebrews—sheep, goats, and cattle—were all of them sacred animals, either to the Egyptians generally or to the inhabitants of certain districts.

A Theban could not endure the sacrifice of a sheep, nor a Mendesian that of a goat . White cows and heifers—perhaps cows and heifers generally—were sacred to Isis-Hathor. Any bull calf might be an Apis; and it could not be known whether he was Apis or not until the priests had examined him . The extent to which the Egyptians carried their rage when a sacred animal was killed in their presence is illustrated by many facts in history.

On one occasion, a Roman ambassador who had accidentally killed a cat was torn to pieces by the populace . On another occasion, war broke out between the Oxyrhynchites and the Cynopolites because the latter had eaten one of the fish considered sacred by the former (Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, section 44). The fear of Moses was thus not at all groundless.

Will they not stone us?—This is the first mention of “stoning” in Scripture or elsewhere. It was not a legalised Egyptian punishment; but probably it was everywhere one of the earliest, as it would be one of the simplest, modes of wreaking popular vengeance. Aeschylus mentions it (Seven Against Thebes 183), as does Herodotus (5:38). It was known in ancient Persia (Ctesias, Fragmenta 50).