the Third Week after Easter
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Bible Lexicons
Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary Hebrew Lexicon
Strong's #3611 - כֶּלֶב
- Brown-Driver-Briggs
- Strong
1) dog
1a) dog (literal)
1b) contempt or abasement (figuratively)
1c) of pagan sacrifice
1d) of male cult prostitute (figuratively)
- Book
- Word
2259) blk (כלב KLB) AC: ? CO: Dog AB: ?
Nm ) blk (כלב KLB) - Dog: KJV (32): dog - Strongs: H3611 (כֶּלֶב)
dm) bflk (כלוב KLWB) - Basket: [unknown connection to root;] KJV (3): cage, basket - Strongs: H3619 (כְּלוּב)
Jeff Benner, Ancient Hebrew Research Center Used by permission of the author.
, Arabic 
; Ethiopic 
Assyrian kalbu Dl HWB 328) — absolute ׳כ Judges 7:5 16t., כָּ֑לֶב Psalm 59:7; Psalm 59:15; plural כְּלָבִים 1 Kings 14:11 12t.; construct כַּלְבֵי Job 30:1; suffix כְּלָבֶיךָ Psalm 68:24; — dog: a. literal 1 Kings 14:11; 1 Kings 16:4; 1 Kings 21:19 (twice in verse); 1 Kings 21:23,24; 1 Kings 22:38; 2 Kings 9:10,36 (all of fierce, hungry dogs, devouring dead bodies and licking blood); compare Jeremiah 15:3 and (לְשׁוֺן כְּלָבֶיךָ) Psalm 68:24; eating torn flesh, Exodus 22:30 (E), כַּלְבֵי צאֹנִי = my sheep-dogs, only Job 30:1 (in both these with implied inferiority); dog-sacrifice was a heathen rite Isaiah 66:3 (Di and others); see especially RS Semitic i, 273 (291), 325 (343); invarious simile Judges 7:5; Proverbs 26:11,17; Psalm 59:7; Psalm 59:15; in proverbial sayings: לֹאלִשֹׁנוֺ ׳יֶחֱרַץכֿ Exodus 11:7 (see I. חרץ); מֵת טוֺב מִןֿ׳לְכ הָאַרְיֵה הַמֵּת Ecclesiastes 9:4.
b. applied, figurative, to men, in contempt 1 Samuel 17:43, so of psalmist's enemies Psalm 22:17; Psalm 22:21, or in excessive humility 2 Kings 8:13; still more emphatically מֵת׳כ a dead dog, הַמֵּת׳הַכּ 2 Samuel 9:8; 2 Samuel 16:9; also ׳ראֹשׁ כ 2 Samuel 3:8; כְּלָבִים אִלְּמִים Isaiah 56:10 (of misleading prophets), עַזֵּי נֶפֶשׁ׳הַכּ Isaiah 56:11 ( id.); ׳כ was name given to male temple-prostitutes Deuteronomy 23:19 (see Dr; compare קָדֵשׁ).
כֶּלֶב , plur. כְּלָבִים, const. כַּלְבֵי m. a dog, so called from barking, as if, barker, see כָּלַב No. 1. (Arab. كَلْبُ, Syr. ܟܰܠܒܐܳ idem. Secondary roots, taking their signification from the nature of dogs, are كَلَبَ to be rabid, to persecute one’s enemies; also, ܟܠܒܶ to be rabid. In the East, troops of fierce half-famished dogs, without masters, are often wandering around the towns and villages (1 Kings 14:11, 16:4 2 Kings 9:10); whence fierce and cruel men are sometimes called dogs, Psalms 22:17, 21 Psalms 22:21. As a dog is also an unclean and despised animal, so by way of reproach, any one is called a dog, 2 Kings 8:13 a dead dog, 1 Samuel 24:15; 2 Samuel 9:8, 16:9 a dog’s head, 2 Samuel 3:8 (compare Gr. κύνωψ, Germ. Gfelskopf, and Hundsfott, i.e. dog’s foot); just as, in the East, in the present day, Christians are called dogs by the Mohammedan rabble. Also, because of the shamelessness of dogs, this name is given to scorta virilia (κύνες, Revelation 22:15), Deuteronomy 23:18 elsewhere קְדֵשִׁים.
