An ABOMINATION — something detestable, ritually or socially intolerable to a particular group. Genesis uses it of EGYPTIAN sensibilities, not Israelite ones: 'the Egyptians cannot eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to Egypt' (43:32), and later that shepherds are an abomination to them (46:34). The narrator reports the custom flatly, without mockery — and it quietly settles a clause left open at 39:6, where Potiphar 'knew nothing of what he had except the bread he ate.' It also leaves Joseph seated at neither table: not with the Egyptians, not with the Hebrews, eating alone between two peoples. → first discussed at Gen 43:32