Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Uri Hurwitz wrote:  “This is found in Arabic to this day: e.g. "kalb" in 
singular.”
 
Wikipedia aptly notes:  ““Kalb (كلب) means dog in the Arabic language.  
Many (but not all) Muslims consider dogs to be unclean, and the Qur’an, like 
the Bible, has several negative things to say about dogs.”
 
No matter how you slice it, there’s no way that Joshua’s right hand man, 
heroic Caleb, who is often stated to be a Kenizzite, would have a west 
Semitic name that means “Dog”.  Rather, both Kenizzite and Caleb are Hurrian 
names, with fine, non-west Semitic meanings.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois