STRONGS NUMBER H3611


Word Summary
keleb: a dog
Original Word: כֶּלֶב
Transliteration: keleb
Phonetic Spelling: (keh'-leb)
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Short Definition: a dog
Meaning: a dog, a male prostitute
Strong's Concordance
dog

From an unused root means. To yelp, or else to attack; a dog; hence (by euphemism) a male prostitute -- dog.

Brown-Driver-Briggs

H3611. keleb

כֶּ֫לֶבnoun masculine1 Samuel 24:15 dog (Late Hebrew id.; Phoenician כלב‎; Aramaic כַּלְבָּא‎, , Arabic ; Ethiopic Assyrian kalbu DlHWB 328) — absolute ׳כJudges 7:5 16t., כָּ֑לֶבPsalm 59:7; 59:15; plural כְּלָבִים1 Kings 14:11-12t.; construct כַּלְבֵיJob 30:1; suffix כְּלָבֶיךָPsalm 68:24; — dog:

a. literal 1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 21:19 (twice in verse); 21:23-24, 22:38; 2 Kings 9:10, 36 (all of fierce, hungry dogs, devouring dead bodies and licking blood); compare Jeremiah 15:3 and (כְּלָבֶיךָ לְשׁוֺן‎) Psalm 68:24; eating torn flesh, Exodus 22:30 (E), צאֹנִי כַּלְבֵי‎ = 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 RSSemitic i, 273 (291), 325 (343); invarious simile Judges 7:5; Proverbs 26:11, 17; Psalm 59:7; 59:15; in proverbial sayings: ׳יֶחֱרַץכֿ לִשֹׁנוֺ לֹאExodus 11:7 (see I. חרץ‎); הַמֵּת הָאַרְיֵה ׳לְכ מִןֿ טוֺב מֵתEcclesiastes 9:4.

b. applied, figurative, to men, in contempt 1 Samuel 17:43, so of psalmist's enemies Psalm 22:17; 22:21, or in excessive humility 2 Kings 8:13; still more emphatically ׳כ מֵתa dead dog, ׳הַכּ הַמֵּת2 Samuel 9:8; 16:9; also כ ׳ראֹשׁ3:8; אִלְּמִים כְּלָבִיםIsaiah 56:10 (of misleading prophets), ׳הַכּ נֶפֶשׁ עַזֵּי56:11 (id.); ׳כ‎ was name given to male temple-prostitutes Deuteronomy 23:19 (see Dr; compare קָדֵשׁ‎).