2 Kings 8:13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog? &c. The expression is used in Scripture to signify vile and unworthy, as in 2 Samuel 3:8; 2 Samuel 9:8; and fierce, barbarous, and inhuman, Psalms 22:16; Psalms 22:20; Psalms 59:6. That he should do this great thing So he terms it, as being, 1st, A thing that supposed great power, and not to be done but by a crowned head: as if he had said, It must be some mighty potentate that must prevail thus against Israel, and therefore not I. Accordingly, the Hebrew may be rendered, What! thy servant, a dog! that he should do this great thing! 2d, An act of great barbarity, which could not be done but by a person lost to all honour and virtue. This is the sense in which Hazael's words have been generally understood; and it seems evidently the true sense. He felt, at this time, no inclination to be so barbarous and cruel as the foregoing words of Elisha implied, and he wondered that the prophet should suppose him capable of ever acting in such a manner. Is thy servant a dog, to rend, and tear, and devour? Unless I were a dog I could not do it. He was evidently startled at the mention of the cruelties which the prophet foretold he should perpetrate, and thought it impossible he should ever be guilty of them. Thus we are very apt to think ourselves sufficiently secure against the commission of those sins which yet we are afterward overcome by, and practise. The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria And then, when thou shalt have the power, thou wilt have the will to commit these enormities and barbarities, and actually wilt commit them. Those who are little and low in the world, cannot imagine how strong the temptations of power and prosperity are, to which if they ever arrive, they will find how deceitful their hearts were, and how much more corrupt than they suspected.