Word

כֶּלֶב

keleb · H3611 · Hebrew · 32 occurrences

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Thing

DogMammals44 verses

Meanings

dog

Relatively small light brown domestic animal, feeding on anything from household refuse to animal carcasses and excreta; Canis familiaris putiatini; extremely unclean animal and therefore not to be eaten, though used for hunting and for watching sheep; considered almost as unclean as a pig; associated with all sorts of uncleanness, aggression, greediness, low status; used as derogatory term for male shrine prostitutes

Examples
Exodus 11:7 ‘But not even a dog will threaten any of the sons of Israel, nor anything from person to animal, so that you may learn how the LORD distinguishes between Egypt and Israel.’
1 Samuel 17:43 So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
2 Samuel 3:8 Then Abner became very angry over Ish-bosheth’s question and said, “Am I a dog’s head that belongs to Judah? Today I show kindness to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers and to his friends, and have not let you fall into the hands of David; yet today you call me to account for wrongdoing with that woman?
dog, male shrine prostitute

Male person involved in sexual intercourse in or around a sanctuary, probably for religious reasons; practice was prohibited in Mosaic law and for that reason regarded as despicable, hence the epithet "dog"

Examples
Deuteronomy 23:18 “You shall not bring the earnings of a prostitute or the money for a dog into the house of the LORD your God as payment for any vowed offering, because both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

How it’s used In 8 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

Whose, or of whatGenitive or possessive

2 occurrences in 2 groups

צֹאןflock, small cattle, sheep and goats 1
ךָyour 1

Words describing itAdjectives, demonstratives, participles

6 occurrences in 6 groups

מוּתto die 3
זֶהthis 1
חַיalive, living 1
אִלֵּםdumb 1
שׁוּבto return, to turn back 1
נִיme 1

What it doesIt is the subject

13 occurrences in 5 groups

אָכַלto eat, to devour 6
לָקַקto lick 4
חָרַץto decide, to decree 1
סָבַבto turn, to go around, to surround 1
קָלַלto curse, to be light 1

What is done to itIt is the object

1 occurrences in 1 groups

עָרַףto break the neck 1

What it is said to bePredicate

1 occurrences in 1 groups

עַזstrong 1

What is said to be itIt is the predicate

3 occurrences in 3 groups

כְּסִילfool, foolish 1
אָנֹכִיI 1
הֶםtheir 1

After prepositionsPrepositional phrases

8 occurrences in 5 groups

כlike/as 5
לto/for 3
אֵלto, toward 2
עִםwith 2
אַחַרafter, behind 1

In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive

5 occurrences in 5 groups

אֹזֶןear 1
יָדhand, power 1
לָשׁוֹןtongue, language 1
מְחִירprice 1
רֹאשׁhead, top, chief 1

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

In the other Testament 1 word

κύων kýōn · G2965 · dog, bad person: Greek κύων (kýōn, G2965) ('dog') is the direct semantic equivalent of Hebrew כֶּלֶב, both denoting a dog literally and functioning figuratively or pejoratively in similar ways (e.g. Philippians 3:2's 'beware of dogs' echoes the same cultic prohibition language found in Deuteronomy 23:18). This consistent correspondence across the Septuagint establishes κύων as a genuine cross-linguistic equivalent.

Semantic domains 2 entries

Domestic Animals001001002002: The word's ordinary sense is the animal itself, the dog, kept and encountered as a domestic animal throughout the narrative occurrences (e.g., Exodus 11:7, Judges 7:5).
Prostitutes001001003011: The same word is used in the idiom "the hire/price of a dog" in Deuteronomy 23:18-19, a euphemism for wages earned through male prostitution paired there with "the wages of a harlot," so it also carries this specialized figurative association.

Word family 2 words

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

כֶּלֶבkeleb · H3611כְּלוּב kᵉlûwb · H3619 · basket, cage · 3×

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H3611. keleb כֶּ֫לֶב noun masculine1Sa 24:15 dog (Late Hebrew id.; Phoenician כלב;…

H3611. keleb
כֶּ֫לֶב noun masculine1Sa 24:15 dog (Late Hebrew id.; Phoenician כלב; Aramaic כַּלְבָּא, , Arabic ; Ethiopic Assyrian kalbu DlHWB 328) — absolute ׳כ Jdg 7:5 Jdg 7:16t., כָּ֑לֶב Psa 59:7; Psa 59:15; plural כְּלָבִים 1Ki 14:11-12t.; construct כַּלְבֵי Job 30:1; suffix כְּלָבֶיךָ Psa 68:24; — dog:
a. literal 1Ki 14:11; 1Ki 16:4; 1Ki 21:19 (twice in verse); 1Ki 21:23-24, 1Ki 22:38; 2Ki 9:10, 2Ki 9:36 (all of fierce, hungry dogs, devouring dead bodies and licking blood); compare Jer 15:3 and (כְּלָבֶיךָ לְשׁוֺן) Psa 68:24; eating torn flesh, Exo 22:30 (E), צאֹנִי כַּלְבֵי = my sheep-dogs, only Job 30:1 (in both these with implied inferiority); dog-sacrifice was a heathen rite Isa 66:3 (Di and others); see especially RSSemitic i, 273 (291), 325 (343); invarious simile Jdg 7:5; Pro 26:11, Pro 26:17; Psa 59:7; Psa 59:15; in proverbial sayings: ׳יֶחֱרַץכֿ לִשֹׁנוֺ לֹא Exo 11:7 (see I. חרץ); הַמֵּת הָאַרְיֵה ׳לְכ מִןֿ טוֺב מֵת Ecc 9:4.
b. applied, figurative, to men, in contempt 1Sa 17:43, so of psalmist's enemies Psa 22:17; Psa 22:21, or in excessive humility 2Ki 8:13; still more emphatically ׳כ מֵת a dead dog, ׳הַכּ הַמֵּת 2Sa 9:8; 2Sa 16:9; also כ ׳ראֹשׁ 2Sa 3:8; אִלְּמִים כְּלָבִים Isa 56:10 (of misleading prophets), ׳הַכּ נֶפֶשׁ עַזֵּי Isa 56:11 (id.); ׳כ was name given to male temple-prostitutes Deu 23:19 (see Dr; compare קָדֵשׁ).

Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain

Topical studies with this word 2 entries

Domestic Animals31 occurrences Prostitutes1 occurrence

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0