Dog
Summary
An animal regarded as unclean and despised in Hebrew culture, used in Scripture primarily as a symbol of contempt, spiritual degradation, and moral filthiness.
☩Status in Hebrew Society
Unlike the modern Western view of dogs as companions, Hebrews considered them unclean and contemptible. The Mosaic law forbade bringing the 'price of a dog' into the sanctuary as an abomination. Dogs were not kept as pets but roamed semi-wild in troops through city streets, feeding on refuse and dead bodies. This scavenging role made them ceremonially defiled, though they served as guards for flocks.
☩Term of Contempt
Calling someone a 'dog' or 'dead dog' expressed utter contempt or extreme self-abasement. David called himself a dead dog when speaking to Saul; Hazael used the term before Elisha; Mephibosheth employed it before David. The Jews regarded Gentiles as 'dogs,' though Jesus transformed this concept in His encounter with the Syrophoenician woman, using the diminutive 'little dogs' or puppies allowed in houses.
☩Figurative Usage
Paul warns believers to 'beware of dogs'—those who act like the unclean, snarling, impure beasts in their opposition to truth. Revelation excludes 'dogs' from the heavenly city—symbolizing the morally corrupt. The proverb about a dog returning to its vomit illustrates the backslider reverting to former sins. Those who are fierce and cruel enemies are poetically called dogs, as in the cry 'deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog.'
Related Verses41 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.George Morrish, "Dog," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 2.F. N. Peloubet & M. A. Peloubet (ed.), "Dog," in Smith's Bible Dictionary (Porter & Coates, 1884).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Dog," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).
- 4.Richard Watson, "Dog," in A Biblical and Theological Dictionary (John Mason, 1831).