of them.” (Deut. 23:18) All those who, like scavenger dogs of the streets, practice disgusting things, such as sodomy, Lesbianism, viciousness and cruelty, are debarred from access to New Jerusalem.—Rev. 22:15; see also Philippians 3:2.

Further indication of the contempt in which these wild and scavenging dogs were held are the following examples: “Am I a dog?” bellowed Goliath to David, because the latter came to him with a staff. (1 Sam. 17:43) “After whom are you chasing? After a dead dog?” asked David of King Saul, thus showing that he was insignificant and could do no more harm to Saul than a dead dog. (1 Sam. 24:14) Similarly, Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, in speaking to King David, referred to himself as “the dead dog,” the lowest condition possible. (2 Sam. 9:8; see also 2 Samuel 3:8; 16:9; 2 Kings 8:13.) The prophet Isaiah compared God’s professed spiritual watchmen to speechless, slumbering dogs full of soulful desire, completely ineffectual in the case of danger. (Isa. 56:10, 11) The enemies of Jehovah’s servants are likened to dogs, and so are the Gentiles. (Ps. 22:16, 20; 59:6, 14; Matt. 15:26, 27) Jesus Christ compared persons having no appreciation for spiritual things to dogs, saying: “Do not give what is holy to dogs.”—Matt. 7:6.

In the light of the unfavorable figurative sense attached to the dog, the very low state of the Lazarus of Jesus’ illustration is clearly reflected in the words, “dogs would come and lick his ulcers.” (Luke 16:21) However, even the despised dog is better off than a dead lion, for the living dog is conscious, whereas the dead lion, the regal beast, is conscious of nothing at all.—Eccl. 9:4, 5.

The dog’s manner of lapping water while at the same time keeping its eyes open to surrounding conditions is referred to in the test that God directed to be put upon the volunteers of Gideon’s army. Only those who were alert, lapping up water from their hands, “just as a dog laps,” were to be chosen for the fight against Midian.—Judg. 7:5.

DOORWAY

The entranceway to a room, a house or some other building. It consists of: (1) The lintel, a horizontal beam of wood or stone spanning the door opening at the top and carrying the weight of the structure above the door; (2) the two upright doorposts, one on each side of the doorway, on which the lintel rests; (3) the door itself; (4) the threshold or doorsill lying beneath the door.

The lintel and doorposts of the entrances of Israelite houses in Egypt were obediently splashed with the blood of the passover victim as a sign for God’s angel to pass over such homes and not destroy their firstborn. (Ex. 12:7, 22, 23) According to the Law, if a slave (male or female) desired to remain permanently in his master’s service, the master brought the slave up against the door or the doorpost and pierced his ear through with an awl. (Ex. 21:5, 6; Deut. 15:16, 17) In time, the Hebrew word for doorpost (m^ezu·zahʹ) was applied to a small container called a “mezuzah” that was nailed to the doorpost and contained a parchment bearing the words of Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21.—See MEZUZAH.

The door was generally made of wood, and many of them turned on pivots fitted into sockets in the lintel and the threshold. (Prov. 26:14) Door pivots were often wooden, but the Egyptians sometimes fastened to a door’s lower and upper ends metal hinges having projections that fitted into sockets, these doors thus pivoting in that way. Sockets for the doors of the temple built by Solomon were of gold.—1 Ki. 7:48, 50.

Doors of average homes were small and not ornate. But the entrance of Solomon’s temple had two two-leaved juniper-wood doors and there were two doors made of oil-tree wood leading to the Most Holy, all these doors having carved representations of cherubs, palm trees and blossoms, overlaid with gold. (1 Ki. 6:31-35) Large doors having folding sections or leaves were also used elsewhere. For instance, Jehovah saw to it that Babylon’s copper “two-leaved doors” were opened to King Cyrus.—Isa. 45:1, 2.

For the threshold generally wood or stone was used. However, the thresholds of the “house of Jehovah” built by Solomon were covered with gold.—2 Chron. 3:1, 7.

Doors of houses or gates were sometimes fastened by means of bars or crossbeams of wood or iron (Isa. 45:2; Deut. 3:5; 2 Chron. 8:5; 14:7), usually affixed in a way that allowed them to be slid into sockets in gateposts or doorposts. City gates sometimes had both bars and bolts. (Neh. 3:3; 7:3) The bolt may have been a rod or shaft that could be moved into a socket in the threshold inside the gate. Some city gates had locks (Deut. 33:25), as did the doors of houses.—2 Sam. 13:17, 18; Luke 11:7; see GATE, GATEWAY; LOCK.

Metal door knockers were used to some extent, but the Bible does not specifically say the Hebrews employed them. To rouse the occupants of a house, one knocked on the door of the house or of the gateway.—Song of Sol. 5:2; Acts 12:13.

FIGURATIVE USE

Jesus Christ encouraged persistence, saying: “Keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7) At Revelation 3:20, Christ states that he is “standing at the door and knocking,” with spiritual fellowship and benefit assured to the one opening the door and receiving Jesus.

If the Shulammite girl had been unsteady in love and virtue, like a door turning on its pivots, her brothers determined to “block her up with a cedar plank,” thus barring the “door” shut and preventing its swinging open to anyone unwholesome.—Song of Sol. 8:8, 9.

Leviathan, with its double jaw, is represented as having “doors” in its face. (Job 41:1, 13, 14) The congregator observed that in the case of the aged man “the doors onto the street have been closed,” perhaps to show that the two doors of the mouth no longer open very much or at all to give expression of what is in the house of the body.—Eccl. 12:1, 4.

Jesus Christ recommended vigorous exertion to gain salvation, “to get in through the narrow door.” (Luke 13:23, 24; Phil. 3:13, 14; compare Matthew 7:13, 14.) He likened himself to the door of the sheepfold, Jesus being the right kind of shepherd who leads his sheep through the door of the sheepfold, both when taking them out to pasture and when bringing them into its protective confines. Jesus’ likening himself to such a door harmonizes with his being the one through whom, by virtue of his ransom sacrifice, sheeplike persons can approach God, be saved and gain life.—John 10:7-11; 14:6.

Jehovah was responsible for opening to the nations “the door to faith.” (Acts 14:27) Paul remained at Ephesus for a time because “a large door that leads to activity” in declaring the good news had been opened to him there.—1 Cor. 16:8, 9; Acts 19:1-20; compare 2 Corinthians 2:12, 13; Colossians 4:3, 4.

In vision, John saw “an opened door in heaven,” which enabled him to see future things and enter, as it were, into the presence of Jehovah.—Rev. 4:1-3.

DOPHKAH

(Dophʹkah).

The first stopping place for the Israelites after leaving the wilderness of Sin on their way to the Promised Land. (Num. 33:12, 13) The Bible does not indicate its exact geographical location. However, many scholars associate Dophkah with the Egyptian mafkat, a district named for the turquoise mined since ancient times around Serabit el-Khadim, about twenty miles (32.2 kilometers) E of modern-day Abu Zenima on the Sinai Peninsula.

DOR

[generation].

One of the Palestinian cities allied with Canaanite King Jabin of Hazor to fight against Joshua (Josh. 11:1, 2) and summarily defeated. (Josh. 11:12; 12:23) Though Dor and its