“Not a Dog Shall Snarl” – What Is the Meaning of Exodus 11:7?

Village dogs, guard dogs, scavenger dogs, and dog burials—what archaeology and the Bible can tell us about dogs in ancient Egypt and the Levant, and the significance of their silence during the plague of the firstborn.

Moses tells Pharaoh that during the plague of the death of the firstborn:

^{שמות יא:ז} וּלְכֹל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא יֶחֱרַץ כֶּלֶב לְשֹׁנוֹ לְמֵאִישׁ וְעַד בְּהֵמָה...

^{Exod 11:7} Not a dog shall snarl at any of the Israelites, at man or beast…^[1]

The verb חֱרַץ usually means “to cut” or “sharpen,” and the phrase can be literally translated “to sharpen the tongue”; in this context, it is an idiom for snarl or growl.^[2]

What type of dog is this verse referring to? To answer this, we can turn to what we know about dogs in the ancient Levant from archaeology and other biblical passages.

Dogs in Egypt

Dogs have been part of human society for millennia, although their place and status in human society differed from culture to culture. In Egypt, dogs were associated with the jackal-headed god Anubis, the god of mummification, who helped deceased humans navigate their way to the afterlife. Early in Egypt’s history, and peaking in the Late Period (6^th–4^th cents. B.C.E.), dogs were even mummified and buried. As Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, notes:

Canine cemeteries of different sizes are found throughout Egypt…^[3] Millions of dogs of all ages have been interred into these cemeteries, all with varying qualities of mummification.^[4]

Dogs were also valued as human companions and buried with their owners or in their own caskets.^[5] Strictly speaking, only the wealthy kept dogs as pets, but agricultural villages would have incorporated dogs into households as working animals, to guard or herd livestock. The situation for dogs in the Levant, however, was rather different.

Village Dogs in the Levant: An Archaeological Perspective

Much of our information about dogs in the Levant comes from the Persian and Hellenistic period (6^th–4^th cent. B.C.E.), when dogs were buried, giving contemporary archaeologists the opportunity to study their skeletons.^[6] The Levantine burial of dogs does not suggest they were venerated as they were in Egypt, but derives at least partly from the fact that these dogs lived inside the towns and villages.^[7]

The most extensive evidence comes from the Phoenician city of Ashkelon, where more than fourteen hundred complete and/or partial dog burials have been unearthed.^[8] In all cases, the characteristics of the burials and the morphology of the dogs suggest that these were village dogs.^[9]

The dog burials at Ashkelon were done with care, with each animal placed in its own individual (unmarked) pit. Dogs were buried wherever there was space, in or near roads, abandoned buildings and construction sites. In some select locations there seems to be an emerging preference for interring puppies along the margins or limits of streets and alleyways.^[10] The skeletons were not scavenged before burial, suggesting that the dead dogs were buried quickly.^[11]

Dog burials from the Persian/Hellenistic period at Ashkelon, adult (left) and puppy (right).
Photos courtesy of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon

In other words, the dogs were not pets, but they did live inside towns and villages, as opposed to roaming free in uninhabited areas like wild animals. Some of these village dogs may have been working dogs, used for guarding or herding livestock. The dogs were unexceptional in size and robustness, suggesting that they were not selected by humans. About two thirds of skeletons were not matured to adult form.^[12] Such a mortality profile closely approximates that of a natural population of unmanaged, free-ranging dogs. The skeletons show signs of pathologies in some cases, indicating malnutrition, parasites, bone fracture and breaks, that would indicate stray animals not receiving the care or protection of pets.^[13]

Dogs in the Bible

Many biblical verses seem to refer to such village dogs, which came with a host of negative stereotypes.^[14]

Dogs Are Scavengers

In Exodus, the Israelites are told to dispose of meat ritually unfit to eat by giving it to dogs:

^{שמות כב:ל} וְאַנְשֵׁי קֹדֶשׁ תִּהְיוּן לִי וּבָשָׂר בַּשָּׂדֶה טְרֵפָה לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ לַכֶּלֶב תַּשְׁלִכוּן אֹתוֹ.

^{Exod 22:30} You shall be holy people to Me: you must not eat flesh torn by beasts in the field; you shall cast it to the dogs.

This verse implies that dogs were scavengers and likely ate scraps fed to them by humans, as well as garbage and discarded animal carcasses. This is the background for one oft-repeated curse in the Bible, that someone’s body will be eaten by dogs. For example, the prophet Ahiyah says to Jeroboam, the first king of Israel:

^{מלכים א יד:יא} הַמֵּת לְיָרָבְעָם בָּעִיר יֹאכְלוּ הַכְּלָבִים וְהַמֵּת בַּשָּׂדֶה יֹאכְלוּ עוֹף הַשָּׁמָיִם...

^{1 Kgs 14:11} Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the town shall be devoured by dogs; and anyone who dies in the open country shall be eaten by the birds of the air…

Here we see the division of labor between scavengers that live among people (dogs) and scavengers that inhabit areas not populated by humans (birds).^[15] This curse is repeated for Baasha (1 Kgs 16:4), Jezebel (1 Kgs 21:23, 2 Kgs 9:10, 36),^[16] and Ahab’s children (1 Kgs 21:23). A variation on this curse is Elijah’s statement that dogs will lap up (ל.ק.ק)^[17] the blood of Ahab (1 Kgs 21:19), a curse that is eventually fulfilled (1 Kgs 22:38).^[18]

Dogs Are Lowly

Dogs were a low-status animal. When Abner, formerly Saul’s chief general, believes that he is being treated insultingly by Saul’s son, he says (2 Sam 3:8) הֲרֹאשׁ כֶּלֶב אָנֹכִי “am I a dog’s head?!”^[19] So too, when the prophet Elisha predicts to Hazael that he will someday become king of Aram and attack Israel mercilessly, Hazael replies:

^{מלכים ב ח:יג} כִּי מָה עַבְדְּךָ הַכֶּלֶב כִּי יַעֲשֶׂה הַדָּבָר הַגָּדוֹל הַזֶּה

^{2 Kgs 8:13} But how can your servant, who is a mere dog, perform such a mighty deed?^[20]

Proverbs uses the dog to exemplify stupid, repulsive behavior:

^{משלי כו:יא} כְּכֶלֶב שָׁב עַל קֵאוֹ כְּסִיל שׁוֹנֶה בְאִוַּלְתּוֹ.

^{Prov 26:11} As a dog returns to his vomit, so a dullard repeats his folly.^[21]

The low status of the dog may be why a male prostitute is referred to as a “dog” (Deut 23:19).^[22]

The Bible is certainly aware of menacing dogs—Psalm 22, for instance, describes them as dangerous and frightening, in parallel with lions, wild oxen, and war^[23]—but the more common image is of lowly village dogs.

Israelite Villages Are Silent while Egyptians Scream

Based on the survey above, Exodus 11 is likely imagining village dogs not barking, thus establishing a contrast between the loud cry of the Egyptians weeping for their dead,^[24] and the utter silence of the Israelite villages, where no one was harmed:

^{שמות יא:ו} וְהָיְתָה צְעָקָה גְדֹלָה בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲשֶׁר כָּמֹהוּ לֹא נִהְיָתָה וְכָמֹהוּ לֹא תֹסִף. ^יא:ז וּלְכֹל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא יֶחֱרַץ כֶּלֶב לְשֹׁנוֹ לְמֵאִישׁ וְעַד בְּהֵמָה לְמַעַן תֵּדְעוּן אֲשֶׁר יַפְלֶה יְ־הוָה בֵּין מִצְרַיִם וּבֵין יִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Exod 11:6} And there shall be a loud cry in all the land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again; ^11:7 but not a dog shall snarl at any of the Israelites, at man or beast, in order that you may know that YHWH makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

This interpretation was suggested already by R. Samuel ben Meir (Rashbam, 1085–1158) in his gloss on the verse:

המלאך מזיק ומשחית בכורי מצרים, אבל בכורי ישראל אפילו קול ניבוח של מזיקי החיות לא יזיק אותם.

The angel will harm and destroy the firstborn Egyptians but the firstborn Israelites will not experience harm [from any source, not] even from the noise of barking from dangerous animals.^[25]

The modern commentator Carol Meyers, professor emerita of Religious Studies in Duke University, writes similarly:

The cry of the afflicted Egyptians (11:6) in hyperbolic fashion will be unprecedented and total… The striking image, in which the Israelites are not disturbed by so much as a growling dog (11:7), epitomizes how God distinguishes between Israel and Egypt.^[26]

On a regular night, dogs would be wandering the villages scavenging and barking, an image we find in Psalms, which compares evildoers to growling dogs at night:

^{תהלים נט:טו} וְיָשׁוּבוּ לָעֶרֶב יֶהֱמוּ כַכָּלֶב וִיסוֹבְבוּ עִיר. ^נט:טז הֵמָּה (ינועון) [יְנִיעוּן] לֶאֱכֹל אִם לֹא יִשְׂבְּעוּ וַיָּלִינוּ.

^{Ps 59:15} They come each evening growling like dogs, roaming the city. ^59:16 They wander in search of food; and whine if they are not satisfied.

A closer look at the context of Exodus 11:7, however, suggests a different meaning.

Egyptian Dogs Not Barking at the Escaping Israelites

As noted by Christoph Berner,^[27] verse 7 interrupts the theme of the death of the firstborn in 11:6 and the response of the Egyptians in 11:8:

^{שמות יא:ד} וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה כֹּה אָמַר יְ־הוָה כַּחֲצֹת הַלַּיְלָה אֲנִי יוֹצֵא בְּתוֹךְ מִצְרָיִם. ^יא:ה וּמֵת כָּל בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבְּכוֹר פַּרְעֹה הַיֹּשֵׁב עַל כִּסְאוֹ עַד בְּכוֹר הַשִּׁפְחָה אֲשֶׁר אַחַר הָרֵחָיִם וְכֹל בְּכוֹר בְּהֵמָה. ^יא:ו וְהָיְתָה צְעָקָה גְדֹלָה בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲשֶׁר כָּמֹהוּ לֹא נִהְיָתָה וְכָמֹהוּ לֹא תֹסִף. // ^יא:ח וְיָרְדוּ כָל עֲבָדֶיךָ אֵלֶּה אֵלַי וְהִשְׁתַּֽחֲווּ לִי לֵאמֹר צֵא אַתָּה וְכָל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר בְּרַגְלֶיךָ...

^{Exod 11:4}Moses said, Thus says YHWH: Toward midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians, ^11:5 and every first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the first-born of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; and all the first-born of the cattle. ^11:6 And there shall be a loud cry in all the land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again // ^11:8 Then all these courtiers of yours shall come down to me and bow low to me, saying, “Depart, you and all the people who follow you!”

The progression from v. 6 to v. 8 is natural; the Egyptians will be mad with grief, and fearful from the death of their firstborn sons, and will run down to Moses and beg him to take the Israelites and leave. Thus, Berner argues that verse 7 is a later addition. But, while Berner sees the verse as entirely the product of a later scribe, an alternative interpretation is that verse 7 is a misplaced verse, originally part of a unit discussing the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.^[28]

In fact, several traditional Jewish commentators assume that the verse describes not how Israelite village dogs will avoid barking at night, but how the Egyptian dogs will not bark at the Israelites while they are leaving.^[29]

In this reading, the dogs are Egyptian, not Israelite, and they would have been snarling and growling as the Israelites marched out of Egypt, but instead, YHWH miraculously made them quiet.

Guard Dogs in Deutero-Isaiah

While not a common image, the Bible does mention guard dogs. Specifically, the Persian Period prophet, Deutero-Isaiah, likens Israel’s leadership to a gluttonous guard dog, that doesn’t bark to warn of an intruder because it is focused on its own gain:

^{ישעיה נו:י} (צפו) [צֹפָיו] עִוְרִים כֻּלָּם לֹא יָדָעוּ כֻּלָּם כְּלָבִים אִלְּמִים לֹא יוּכְלוּ לִנְבֹּחַ הֹזִים שֹׁכְבִים אֹהֲבֵי לָנוּם. ^נו:יא וְהַכְּלָבִים עַזֵּי נֶפֶשׁ לֹא יָדְעוּ שָׂבְעָה...

^{Isa 56:10} The watchmen are blind, all of them, they perceive nothing. They are all dumb dogs that cannot bark; they lie sprawling, they love to drowse. ^56:11 Moreover, the dogs are greedy; they never know satiety…^[30]

In Exodus, however, the dogs are not silent because of gluttony but because YHWH has miraculously silenced them.

Snarling Soldiers and Snarling Dogs: The Joshua 10 Parallel

Evidence that this is the likely meaning here comes from a comparison with the only other time the expression “sharpen the tongue” appears in the Bible, in the story of Joshua and the battle of Gibeon:

^{יהושע י:כא} וַיָּשֻׁבוּ כָל הָעָם אֶל הַמַּחֲנֶה אֶל יְהוֹשֻׁעַ מַקֵּדָה בְּשָׁלוֹם לֹא חָרַץ לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְאִישׁ אֶת לְשֹׁנוֹ.

^{Josh 10:21} The whole army returned in safety to Joshua in the camp at Makkedah; no one so much as snarled at the Israelites.

In this verse, the reference is to people snarling, and their not snarling here is meant to express their subservience to the conquering Israelites. Not only didn’t they attack the Israelite soldiers, but they didn’t even dare to grunt.

While people holding their tongues is natural, for dogs to do so is miraculous. The silence accompanying the otherwise cacophonous tumult of the Israelites escaping Egypt is a small miracle, a poignant sign of God’s favor for Israel, expressed by one of the Bible’s least favorite animals.

View Footnotes

Published 2021-01-21

Unless noted otherwise, translations are from NJPS with small adjustments.
The LXX and Targum Onkelos both have “a dog will not grumble with his tongue.” Frank Charles Fensham, “The Dog in Ex. XI 7,” Vetus Testamentum 16.4 (1966): 504, translates “grumble” to mean “make a noise.”
She lists specifically: “Hardai/Cynopolis, Saqqara, Asyut, Sheikh Fadl, Abydos, Badari, Stabl Antar, Gebel Abu Feda, Sheikh Fadl, Gerzeh, Hu, Kharga, Lahun, Medinet Gurab, Koptos Manfalut, Mei-dum, Qaw el-Amarna, Sharuna, and Thebes.”
Salima Ikram, “Man’s Best Friend for Eternity: Dog and Human Burials in Ancient Egypt,” Anthropozoologica 48.2 (2013): 299–307; idem, Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2015).
Ikram, “Man’s Best Friend for Eternity: Dog and Human Burials in Ancient Egypt.”
Canan Cakirlar et al., “Persian Period Dog Burials in the Levant: New Evidence from Tell El-Burak (Lebanon) and a Reconstruction of the Phenomenon,” Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Supplement 44 (2014): 243–64; Liora K. Horwitz, Samuel R. Wolff, and Steven Ortiz, “The Context and Biometry of Iron Age II and Hellenistic Period Dog ‘Burials’ from Tel Gezer Compared to Those from Other Sites in the Region,” in The Wide Lens in Archaeology, ed. Justin Lev-Tov, Paula Hesse, and Allan Gilbert, Honoring Brian Hesse’s Contributions to Anthropological Archaeology (Lockwood Press, 2017), 297–334.
In the Bible, a “dead dog” is an idiom for a disrespected person. When Saul is chasing David through the Judean wilderness, David complains:
^{שמואל א כד:טו} אַחֲרֵי מִי יָצָא מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל אַחֲרֵי מִי אַתָּה רֹדֵף אַחֲרֵי כֶּלֶב מֵת אַחֲרֵי פַּרְעֹשׁ אֶחָד.
^{1 Sam 24:15} Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A single flea?
We see this again when David offers Mephiboshet, the physically-impaired son of Jonathan, a place at the king’s table, and Mephiboshet replies:
^{שמואל ב ט:ח} מֶה עַבְדֶּךָ כִּי פָנִיתָ אֶל הַכֶּלֶב הַמֵּת אֲשֶׁר כָּמוֹנִי.
^{2 Sam 9:8} What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog like me?
Finally, when Shimei ben Gerah hurls insults at David, Abishai, one of the king’s generals, says:
^{שמואל ב טז:ט} לָמָּה יְקַלֵּל הַכֶּלֶב הַמֵּת הַזֶּה אֶת אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ
^{2 Sam 16:9} Why let that dead dog abuse my lord the king?
At none of the other sites does the number of burials exceed thirty, with most less than ten.
Paula Wapnish and Brian Hesse, “Pampered Pooches or Plain Pariahs? The Ashkelon Dog Burials,” The Biblical Archaeologist 56.2 (1993): 55–80.
Paula Hesse and Deirdre N. Fulton, “The Hellenistic Fauna of Ashkelon,” in Ashkelon 9, eds. Kathleen Birney, Lawrence Stager, and Daniel Master (Winona Lake, IN: Harvard Semitic Museum/Eisenbrauns, forthcoming).
Incomplete skeletons are the result of subsequent activity in the vicinity of burial. There are no accompanying grave goods with any of the dog burials.
They were puppies, some very young, in their first few weeks of life. Wapnish and Hesse, “Pampered Pooches or Plain Pariahs?”
It is not known how the dogs received the fractures and breaks to their bones. It may have been caused by mistreatment at the hands of humans, or by fights with other animals.
Sophia Menache, “Dogs: God’s Worst Enemies?,” Society and Animals 5.1 (1997): 23–44.
For a discussion of the shame in this type of death, see Matthew Suriano, A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible (New York: Oxford University Press), 189–197.
While the curse is repeated three times, this detail is not mentioned when she is actually killed (2 Kgs 9:36), though it may be implied by the fact that, when they go to bury her, only her skull, feet, and palms of her hands remain.
With regard to this verbal root, when YHWH tells Gideon which soldiers to choose for his army, Judges 7:5 refers to any soldier אֲשֶׁר יָלֹק בִּלְשׁוֹנוֹ מִן הַמַּיִם כַּאֲשֶׁר יָלֹק הַכֶּלֶב “who laps up water with his tongue like a dog laps [water].” What this is trying to communicate about the soldiers, or about this manner of drinking, is unclear.
A variation on this curse is what Jeremiah predicts for Judah:
^{ירמיה טו:ג} וּפָקַדְתִּי עֲלֵיהֶם אַרְבַּע מִשְׁפָּחוֹת נְאֻם יְ־הוָה אֶת הַחֶרֶב לַהֲרֹג וְאֶת הַכְּלָבִים לִסְחֹב וְאֶת עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת בֶּהֱמַת הָאָרֶץ לֶאֱכֹל וּלְהַשְׁחִית.
^{Jer 15:3} And I will appoint over them four kinds—declares YHWH—the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the sky, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
The MT continues with the words אֲשֶׁר לִיהוּדָה “for Judah,” which is difficult to parse. The Greek LXX does not have these words, just the phrase quoted above (μὴ κεφαλὴ κυνὸς ἐγώ εἰμι). Another negative usage of “dog” is by Goliath when he saw David approach him without armor or a sword:
^{שמואל א יז:מג} וַיֹּאמֶר הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי אֶל דָּוִד הֲכֶלֶב אָנֹכִי כִּי אַתָּה בָא אֵלַי בַּמַּקְלוֹת
^{1 Sam 17:43} And the Philistine called out to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?”
The LXX has a fuller version:
καὶ εἶπεν ὁ ἀλλόφυλος πρὸς Δαυιδ ὡσεὶ κύων ἐγώ εἰμι ὅτι σὺ ἔρχῃ ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ ἐν ῥάβδῳ καὶ λίθοις καὶ εἶπεν Δαυιδ οὐχί ἀλλ᾽ ἢ χείρω κυνός
“And the foreigner said to David, “Am I like a dog, that you come upon me with a rod and stones?” And David said, “No, but worse than a dog.”
Ecclesiastes expresses this lowliness ironically:
^{קהלת ט:ד} ... כִּי לְכֶלֶב חַי הוּא טוֹב מִן הָאַרְיֵה הַמֵּת.
^{Eccl 9:4} …Even a live dog is better than a dead lion.
Trito-Isaiah compares the ritual slaughter of a sheep to breaking the neck of a dog in an attempt to belittle the former:
^{ישעיה סו:ג} שׁוֹחֵט הַשּׁוֹר מַכֵּה אִישׁ זוֹבֵחַ הַשֶּׂה עֹרֵף כֶּלֶב...
^{Isa 66:3} Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck... (NRSV)
Jacob L. Wright, David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 168. Wright points out that “dog” is a “self-deprecating designation that servants and subjects often applied to themselves when communicating with their superiors.” He cites examples in Akkadian and Phoenician names that contain this root. This may be the meaning behind the biblical name Caleb, a heroic character who is loyal to God and Moses. That said, Caleb is the eponymous ancestor of a clan called the Calebites (see, e.g., 1 Sam 25:3, 1 Sam 30:14, 1 Chron 2:9); as a clan name, the implications could be different. (Roving like dogs? Tough like dogs?)
Notably, this same passage mentions dogs again:
^{משלי כו:יז} מַחֲזִיק בְּאָזְנֵי כָלֶב עֹבֵר מִתְעַבֵּר עַל רִיב לֹּא לוֹ.
^{Prov 26:17} Like somebody who takes a passing dog by the ears [LXX: (κέρκου) tail] is one who meddles in the quarrel of another (NRSV).
In this case, it is not the dog who is foolish but the human.
The first positive image of a dog in Israelite/Judean literature may be found in the Apocryphal text of Tobit. In this narrative, a dog accompanies Tobias and the angel Azariah on their journey:
^{Tobit 6:1} …The young man went out and the angel went with him; ^6:2 and the dog came out with him and went along with them.
The dog is mentioned again later (11:4) and seems to function in the story simply as a companion. This positive depiction, which has no parallels in the Bible, may be the influence of Greek writings, such as the Odyssey (17.289-327), on the text. For a discussion of the presence of a dog in Tobit, see Carey A. Moore, Tobit: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Bible 40A (New York: Doubleday, 1996); Naomi S. Jacobs, “What About the Dog? Tobit’s Mysterious Canine Revisited,” in Canonicity, Setting, Wisdom in the Deuterocanonicals, ed. Géza G. Xeravits, Zsengellér Józef, and Szabó Xavér, Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies 22 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014), 221–46.
^{תהלים כב:יז} כִּי סְבָבוּנִי כְּלָבִים עֲדַת מְרֵעִים הִקִּיפוּנִי כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי... ^כב:כא הַצִּילָה מֵחֶרֶב נַפְשִׁי מִיַּד כֶּלֶב יְחִידָתִי. ^כב:כב הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי מִפִּי אַרְיֵה וּמִקַּרְנֵי רֵמִים עֲנִיתָנִי.
^{Ps 22:17}Dogs surround me; a pack of evil ones closes in on me, like lions they maul my hands and feet… ^22:21 Save my life from the sword, my precious life from the clutches of a dog. ^22:22 Deliver me from a lion’s mouth; from the horns of wild oxen rescue me.
This צְעָקָה גְדֹלָה “loud cry” is an echo of the earlier cry of the Israelites which God heard. This cry will lead to the Exodus of the Israelites, but the cry of the Egyptians is unique since it is “loud.” The use of “loud cry” is only found in Genesis 27:24 (Esau’s loud cry to his father Isaac) and in the death of the first-born narrative in Exodus (11:6 and 12:30).
Marty Lockshin translation, accessed on AlHaTorah.org.
Carol Meyers, Exodus, The New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 93.
Christoph Berner, Die Exoduserzählung: das literarische Werden einer Ursprungslegende Israels, Forschungen zum Alten Testament, 73 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), 261. Stephen Germany argues for several redactional layers to the Exodus 11 narrative. In Germany’s model, the basic material from Exodus 11 was only verse 8b which was originally connected to 10:28-29 . Exodus 11:4b-6 and 8a were added at a later date, with v. 7 added even later. Stephen Germany, The Exodus-Conquest Narrative: The Composition of the Non-Priestly Narratives in Exodus-Joshua (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 51-52.
Such displacements are found elsewhere in this passage. As many scholars have noted, vv. 1–3 and 4–8 are discontinuous with each other. In the latter, Moses speaking with Pharaoh about the final plague. Moreover, in vv. 4–8 Moses continues the conversation he was having with Pharaoh in 10:24–29, while in vv. 1–3, Moses is not with Pharaoh. Confusion about the context of v. 7 is thus par for the course in the problematic editing of this passage.
See the commentaries of Tobiah ben Elazar (Lekah Tov), Avraham ibn Ezra, Joseph Bekhor Shor, and David Zvi Hoffmann (ad loc.). Modern dog specialists from breeders to zoologists identify many types of barking associated with canine moods and behaviors. Each type of bark serves a specific function, perhaps to signal danger, ward off predators, or more benign, a greeting.
Similar to this passage in Isaiah, the Roman writer Aelian characterizes dogs as bad at keeping watch, since they are silent when someone feeds them, and then they fall asleep. Aelian blames dogs for the near-conquest of Rome by the Celts in 390 B.C.E. The only reason the Celts were unsuccessful was because of geese. Unlike dogs, who remain silent when food is thrown to them, geese cackle when fed. This cackling alerted the Romans to the Celtic presence. See Aelian, De Natura Animalium (12.33).

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