8:13 your servant . . . a dog. This expression of self-deprecation before a superior occurs in a number of extrabiblical documents (the Lachish and Amarna letters) from early sixth century Judah (see also a similar formula in 1 Sam. 17:43; 24:14; 2 Sam. 3:8). Assyrian inscriptions refer to Hazael as “the son of a nobody,” that is, a commoner.