Exodus 11:7

Exo 11:7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

Ver. 7. Shall not a dog move his tongue.] And yet how many dead dogs do now-a-days bark and snarl {a} at the Israel of God! Which, nevertheless, is not without God, {2Sa 16:9-10} who will one day make iniquity to stop her mouth, {Job 5:16} Why should this dead dog curse? said Abishai.

{a} Canina facundia.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 11:7. Shall not a dog move his tongue — A proverbial expression, importing all should be peace and quietness among the Israelites, far from any frightful outcry: that in that memorable night they should meet with nothing to molest or disturb them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:7 As stated explicitly in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and ninth plagues (8:23; 9:6, 26; 10:23), the Lord distinguished between his people and the Egyptians. These events clearly resulted from the express activity of God and were not just a chance collection of natural tragedies.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue--No town or village in Egypt or in the East generally is free from the nuisance of dogs, who prowl about the streets and make the most hideous noise at any passers-by at night. What an emphatic significance does the knowledge of this circumstance give to this fact in the sacred record, that on the awful night that was coming, when the air should be rent with the piercing shrieks of mourners, so great and universal would be the panic inspired by the hand of God, that not a dog would move his tongue against the children of Israel!

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 7. Not a dog move his tongue] This passage has been generally understood as a proverbial expression, intimating that the Israelites should not only be free from this death, but that they should depart without any kind of molestation. For though there must be much bustle and comparative confusion in the sudden removal of six hundred thousand persons with their wives, children, goods, cattle, c., yet this should produce so little alarm that even the dogs should not bark at them, which it would be natural to expect, as the principal stir was to be about midnight.

After giving this general explanation from others, I may be permitted to hazard a conjecture of my own. And,

1. Is it not probable that the allusion is here made to a well-known custom of dogs howling when any mortality is in a village, street, or even house, where such animals are? There are innumerable instances of the faithful house-dog howling when a death happens in a family, as if distressed on the account, feeling for the loss of his benefactor but their apparent presaging such an event by their cries, as some will have it, may be attributed, not to any prescience, but to the exquisite keenness of their scent. If the words may be understood in this way, then the great cry through the whole land of Egypt may refer to this very circumstance: as dogs were sacred among them, and consequently religiously preserved, they must have existed in great multitudes.

2. We know that one of their principal deities was Osiris, whose son, worshipped under the form of a dog, or a man with a dog's head, was called Anubis latrator, the barking Anubis. May he not be represented as deploring a calamity which he had no power to prevent among his worshippers, nor influence to inflict punishment upon those who set his deity at naught? Hence while there was a great cry, צעקה גדלה tseakah gedolah, throughout all the land of Egypt, because of the mortality in every house, yet among the Israelites there was no death, consequently no dog moved his tongue to howl for their calamity; nor could the object of the Egyptians' worship inflict any similar punishment on the worshippers of Jehovah.

In honour of this dog-god there was a city called Anubis in Egypt, by the Greeks called Cynopolis, the city of the dog, the same that is now called Menich; in this he had a temple, and dogs, which were sacred to him, were here fed with consecrated victuals.

Thus, as in the first plagues their magicians were confounded, so in this last their gods were put to flight. And may not this be referred to in Ex 12:12, when Jehovah says: Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment? Should it be objected, that to consider the passage in this light would be to acknowledge the being and deity of the fictitious Anubis, it may be answered, that in the sacred writings it is not an uncommon thing to see the idol acknowledged in order to show its nullity, and the more forcibly to express contempt for it, for its worshippers, and for its worship. Thus Isaiah represents the Babylonish idols as being endued with sense, bowing down under the judgments of God, utterly unable to help themselves or their worshippers, and being a burden to the beasts that carried them:

BEL boweth down, NEBO stoopeth; their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy laden; they are a burden to the weary beast. THEY stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity; Isa 46:1-2. The case of Elijah and the prophets of Baal should not be forgotten here; this prophet, by seeming to acknowledge the reality of Baal's being, though by a strong irony, poured the most sovereign contempt upon him, his worshippers, and his worship: And Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; FOR HE IS A GOD: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked; 1Kg 18:27. See the observations at the end of chap. xii. See Clarke on Ex 12:51.

The Lord doth put a difference] See on Ex 8:22. See Clarke on Ex 8:22. And for the variations between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch in this place, see at the end of the chapter. See Clarke on Ex 11:9.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(7) Shall not a dog move his tongue.—Com pare Jos_10:21. The expression is evidently proverbial.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. shall not a dog whet his tongue] A proverbial expression, implying that not only should they suffer no actual harm, but no unfriendly sound should even be heard against them. Cf. Jdt_11:19; and, with ‘no man’ as subject, Jos_10:21.

that ye may know, &c.] cf. on Exo_8:10, and p. 56.

put a difference] in the Heb. a single word, the verb rendered ‘sever’ on Exo_8:22, Exo_9:4.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast,.... That is, as no hurt should be done to man or beast among them, to the firstborn of either of them, so there would be no noise or cry in their dwellings, but the profoundest silence, stillness, and quietness among them; though this is generally understood of what would be their case when on their march departing out of Egypt, which was immediately upon the slaying of the firstborn; and, if literally understood, it was a very extraordinary thing that a dog, which barks at the least noise that is made, especially in the night, yet not one should move his tongue or bark, or rather "sharpen" (u) his tongue, snarl and grin, when 600,000 men, besides women and children, with their flocks and herds, set out on their journey, and must doubtless march through many places where dogs were, before they came to the Red sea; though it may also be interpreted figuratively, that not an Egyptian, though ever so spiteful and malicious, and ill disposed to the children of Israel, should offer to do any hurt either to the Israelites or their cattle, or exclaim against them on account of the slaughter of their firstborn, or say one word against their departure, or attempt to stop them, but on the contrary would hasten their going, and be urgent for it:

that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel; by preserving them and theirs, when the firstborn of Egypt were destroyed, and by causing stillness and quietness among them when there was an hideous outcry and doleful lamentation among the Egyptians; and by bringing Israel quietly out from among them, none offering to give the least molestation.

(u) non acuet, Noldius, p. 517. No. 1471. so Jarchi.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Shall not a dog move his tongue - A proverb expressive of freedom from alarm and immunity front assault.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Dog. They shall enjoy a profound peace, (Judith xi. 5,) while Egypt is in tears. Calmet here inserts the speech from the Samaritan copy, "And the man Moses;" &c. (ver. 3, and seq.[following]) deeming it essential to the context, and very agreeable to the spirit of Moses, who has many repetitions. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Instead of those loud cries of the Egyptian families, there shall be so great a tranquillity among the Israelites, that even the dogs, which are sensible of, and awaked, and provoked by, the least noise, shall not be stirred up by them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Shall not a dog move his tongue — The very dogs of Egypt shall respect the people before whom their masters cower in fear.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shall not a dog move his tongue. So far from a sudden destruction coming upon them, there shall not so much as a dog bark at them- They shall incur no hurt no danger. (Compare Jos_10:21) That ye may know how that the Lord doth put a differencei.e. , "that both ye courtiers and all Egypt may know how great a difference God puts between us his peculiar people-and you wretched idolaters."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

לא יחרץ כלב לשנו NO DOG SHALL חרץ HIS TONGUE — I say that it has the meaning of sharpening: “no dog shall whet his tongue”. So, too: (Joshua 10:21) “לא חרץ his tongue against any of the children of Israel”, i. e. “none whetted”; (II Samuel 5:24) “then תחרץ” — then thou shalt utter a sharp sound; (Isaiah 41:15) “a threshing-sledge חרוץ” i. e. sharp; (Proverbs 21:5) “the plans of a חרוץ” — of “an acute and sharp man”; (Proverbs 10:4) “the hand of the חרוצים maketh rich”, i. e. the hand of the acute — of sharp merchants.

אשר יפלה meant THAT HE MAKETH A DIFFERENCE.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.