DOG

In the Bible the dog is usually spoken of disparagingly, the references being however to ownerless dogs which prowl in inhabited areas (Ps. 59:7, 15), feed off animal carcasses and human corpses (I Kings 23:38), and attack passersby (Ps. 22:17). "Dog" was a derogatory term (II Kings 8:13) and apparently was applied to a male temple-prostitute (cf. Deut. 23:19). However, shepherd dogs were bred (Isa. 56:11; Job 30:1). Divergent views were expressed by the sages on the rearing of dogs. The Mishnah says: "One should not rear a dog unless it is kept on a chain" (BK 7:7). There was also opposition to rearing dogs in Ereẓ Israel, R. Eleazar declaring that "he who rears dogs is like one who rears swine" (ibid. TB 83a). It was however permitted in a frontier town where "one keeps it chained during the daytime and looses it at night" (ibid.) and one amora even stated that a man should not live in a town "in which no dogs bark" (Pes. 113a). There is no explicit information extant on the breeds of dogs reared in biblical times. Pedigree dogs were probably raised alongside the local dog, Canis familiaris putiatini, of which there were different types. Various breeds of dogs appear in Assyrian and Egyptian monuments. The use of hunting dogs is attested by an ivory comb from Megiddo showing a dog hunting a mountain goat. Mosaics dating from mishnaic and talmudic times also depict dogs. The Mishnah distinguishes between a common dog, which resembles a wolf, and a village or wild dog, which resembles a jackal (Kil. 1:6; cf. Ber. 9b). Attacks by mad dogs were a common occurrence; the rabbis refer frequently to rabies and give the symptoms by which to recognize a mad dog (Yoma 83b, 84a). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: F.S. Bodenheimer, Ha-Ḥai be-Ereẓ Yisrael (1953), 264–8; idem, Ha-Ḥai be-Arẓot ha-Mikra, 2 (1956), 331–9; J. Feliks, Kilei Zera'im ve-Harkavah (1967), 121–3; Lewysohn, Zool, 82–89. ADD Bibliography: Feliks, Ha-Ẓome'aḥ, 242. (Jehuda Feliks)