2 Kings 8:13 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But what, is thy servant a dog? - This is a mistranslation, and conveys to the English reader a sense quite different from that of the original. Hazael’s speech runs thus - “But what is thy servant, this dog, that he should do this great thing?” He does not shrink from Elisha’s words, or mean to say that he would be a dog, could he act so cruelly as Elisha predicts he will. On the contrary, Elisha’s prediction has raised his hopes, and his only doubt is whether so much good fortune (“this great thing”) can be in store for one so mean. “Dog” here, as generally (though not always) in Scripture, has the sense of “mean,” “low,” “contemptible.”