But not a dog shall cut his voice at any of the Israelites, at human or beast—in order that you may know that G-d makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
What does this mean? Surely it is not merely a turn of phrase?
Dogs have a very special place in the history of humanity (Egyptians had domestic dogs for thousands of years before Moshe – and they revered their dogs, often mummifying them). More critically: dogs have long been associated, across cultures, with death.
The Greeks and Romans believed that the dead journeyed to the underworld with their dogs. So did the ancient Egyptians, who believed that Anubis, a dog, was in fact the deity responsible for death. Dogs have been associated with the spirits of the dead throughout the Middle Ages and even into the modern world.
It is widely believed that dogs have a sense for impending death – and they act out in response. And there is a persistent belief that dogs howl when their owners die.
Could a reference to common beliefs about dogs easily explain this verse – that the dogs would respond to the deaths among the Egyptians, and not respond among the Jews – because the Jews were not subject to the final plague?
But if so, why use this phrase? What is this verse, even if understood in this context, supposed to teach us?