THE dog has been a domestic animal from a very remote period, but many of the allusions to it in Scripture correspond with the dislike and contempt still commonly entertained for it by many of the Eastern nations. In Ex. 11:7 we read that, “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue;” which shows their habits of barking, and that they were then domesticated. That dogs are carnivorous we learn from Ex. 22:31, the flesh of any beasts which were torn in the field was not to be eaten by man, but cast to the dogs.
The text in Deut. 23:18, which refers to the price of a dog being brought into God’s house to pay any vow, is explained in this way: if a man give a dog in exchange for a lamb, that lamb may not be offered in sacrifice upon God’s altar; this law, understood as literally referring to a dog, is thought by many as intended to throw contempt upon the Egyptian god, Anubis, who was worshipped under the form of that animal.
In 1 Sam. 24:14— “After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.” Similar phrases are still employed in the East by persons who wish to express their sense of lowliness. Whatever be its genera] merit, its name has certainly in all ages, and in most countries, been used as an epithet concerning debasement or detestation. In this sense it frequently occur; in Scripture: thus, Goliath, when he felt his dignity affronted, said, “Am I a dog?” (1 Sam. 17:43). Abner, when his conduct was questioned, said, “Am I a dog’s head?” (2 Sam. 3:8). And Jonathan’s son, when touched by David’s kindness, said, “What is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” (2 Sam. 9:8). Also, another example in 2 Sam. 16:9. There are several other instances of a similar bearing, besides which, the epithet dogs is, in the New Testament, applied in a general abuse to persons addicted to vile and sensual principles and habits— “Beware of dogs! beware of evil workers!” (Phil. 3:2). And, “Without are dogs and sorcerers and murderers” etc. (Rev. 22:15). All this needs little explanation as the same contemptuous estimate of the dog’s character, and the application of its name, continues to prevail; but with this difference, at least among ourselves, that the word as an epithet of abuse is not so frequently found as it was anciently in the mouths of distinguished persons.
In 1 Kings 14:11 the Lord, through the prophet Ahijah, foretells the judgments which are to befall the house of Jeroboam. Anyone who died in the city pertaining to him was to be eaten by dogs, and whoever died in the field would be eaten by the fowls of the air. In the sixteenth chapter of the same book, a similar judgment was to befall the house of Baasha. Also, in the twenty-first chapter, Ahab’s house was to be judged likewise, but he humbled himself, and God sent to Elijah to tell him that this judgment should not be in his days, but that it should come to pass in the days of his son. But Ahab disobeyed the Lord, therefore the dogs licked his blood where they licked the blood of Naboth. The judgment which was pronounced on Jezebel was that she was to be eaten by dogs by the wall of Jezreel.
The English reader is apt to be surprised that dogs, which exhibit so many amiable and interesting qualities, should always be mentioned with contempt and aversion in the Scriptures, but the known character of the dog in a great degree, is an improvement resulting from perfect domestication and kind treatment. In the East he is not well treated; for this reason he is there a fierce, cruel, greedy, and base creature, such as the Scriptures describe him. In large towns, where there is much activity and intercourse, the dogs do not generally offer any molestation to any person in the daytime, except those whom they detect by the scent or costume to be decided foreigners. But at night it is very hazardous to pass through the streets, as they swarm with dogs, who do the work of scavengers, and are thus alluded to in Psa. 59:6 and 14. One person alone, and particularly if unarmed, in the streets or outside a city by night would be in danger of being seriously injured, if not torn to pieces, unless assistance came, as the attack of one dog would serve as a signal to bring others in great numbers to the assault. And this throws light upon the prophecy respecting our Saviour in Psa. 22:16, when surrounded by the cruel Jews who crucified Him. Solomon, in his proverbs, compares sinners who relapse into their guilt as dogs returning to their vomit, which the apostle Peter quotes in his 2 Epistle 2:22. “His watchmen are blind; they are all dumb dogs.” From this, as well as from Isa. 62:6, we know it was customary for Hebrew watchmen to utter cries from time to time, so that silence in a watchman is described as a disqualification and reproach. It is known that there are some species of dogs which cannot bark, and some such the prophet, probably had in view in the comparison.
We have, in Matt. 15:26, an example, in the history of the Syrophenician woman, of persons wishing to express a sense of their lowliness by calling themselves dogs. She came to the Lord beseeching Him to cure her daughter, who was possessed with a devil: the Lord, wishing to try her faith, answered, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to the dogs.” When she replied: “Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
There is one exception from the general character given to dogs in the Scriptures, it is found in Luke 16:21, where they licked the sores of the beggar Lazarus, and were kinder to him than the rich man at whose gate he lay. And thus this contemptuous animal had more kindness of heart than many of the Jews who professed so much.
The symbolical meaning of the dog is varied in the Scriptures. In Psa. 22:20 it is put for the devil; for persecutors in Psa. 22:16; for false teachers, Isa. 66:12, Phil. 3; 2 for unholy men, Matt. 7:6; and for Gentiles, Matt. 15:26 and 27. Dogs are men of odious character and violent temper. In Psa. 59:6 the wicked are compared to dogs, and thus we learn from the whole of Scripture that the dog, an unclean animal, is a type of sin and uncleanness in the lowest form The second prize, “The Sea and its Wonders,” has been gained by Arthur J. H. Brown.