1. Revelation 22:15 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is the force of the word “dogs”?

Revelation 22:15 (ESV)

15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

In today’s Western civilization, dogs are commonly seen as pets and so treated with love and care. In many other civilizations, including the Greco-Roman civilization into which Christ Jesus was sending his Revelation (Revelation 1:11), dogs were scavengers living alongside humans on whatever scraps they could find (Exodus 22:31; 1 Kings 14:11; Psalm 68:23). So references to dogs were habitually derogatory (Matthew 7:6; Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 2:22). Applied to people, the term indicates the unclean and the unwanted, for they have not washed their robes. So they are still filthy (Revelation 22:11).