Are cats in the Bible?
Are cats in the Bible? No. The words cat and cats appear 0 times in the 66 books of the King James Version, and the same is true of modern translations. For an animal that shared homes with people across the ancient Near East, that silence surprises a lot of readers, especially once they learn how often the Bible talks about dogs.
Dogs are in the Bible 39 times
The KJV uses dog 15 times and dogs 24 times. They are not pets. Dogs in the Bible eat what is thrown out, lick wounds, and serve as an insult: Goliath asks David “Am I a dog?” and Philippians 3:2 warns “beware of dogs”. A few of the singular verses:
- Exodus 11:7: But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
- Deuteronomy 23:18: Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
- Judges 7:5: So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
- 1 Samuel 17:43: And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
- 1 Samuel 24:14: After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.
- 2 Samuel 9:8: And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am ?
So the Bible knew household animals well. It just never wrote about cats, which makes the cat one of the best-known examples of an everyday word that is missing from scripture.
Are cats in the Bible anywhere at all?
The original 1611 King James Bible included the Apocrypha, a set of books printed between the Old and New Testaments. In the Letter of Jeremiah, printed as Baruch chapter 6, verse 22 mocks idols that cannot even brush away the bats, swallows, birds, and cats that sit on them. That is the only cat in the 1611 printing. Most Protestant Bibles today, and the word list on this site, cover only the 66 books, so the checker reports cat as not in the Bible.
Dogs were not the only animals the Bible knew well. It also names creatures that most readers have never seen, such as unicorns and the sea monsters discussed on the dragons page, so the missing cat stands out even more.
Big cats are everywhere
Lions are a different matter. Lion and lions together appear more than 140 times in the King James Bible, from Judah the lion’s whelp in Genesis 49:9 to Daniel in the lions’ den and the Lion of the tribe of Juda in Revelation 5:5. Leopards appear too. The Bible had no trouble with felines; it simply never mentioned the small one that lives indoors.
Other animals that are missing
Cat is in good company. Words such as elephant, kangaroo, and penguin are not in the King James Bible, and neither is dinosaur. Meanwhile the KJV does contain unicorns and dragons, thanks to the way its translators handled rare Hebrew animal names. If you want to know whether your own pet, or a whole sentence about it, made it into scripture, type it into the Bible word checker: found words turn green, missing ones are crossed out. Try cat and dog side by side and you will see the short answer to “are cats in the Bible?” for yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Is the word cat in the Bible?
No. Neither cat nor cats appears anywhere in the 66 books of the King James Bible, and modern translations such as the NIV and ESV do not mention domestic cats either. Big cats are another story: lions are mentioned well over a hundred times.
Where are cats mentioned in religious texts?
The only cats in the 1611 King James Bible are in the Apocrypha, the extra books printed between the Testaments. Baruch 6:22, part of the Letter of Jeremiah, mocks idols that cannot move while bats, swallows, birds, and cats sit on them. Most Protestant Bibles today leave the Apocrypha out.
How many times are dogs mentioned in the Bible?
Dog appears 15 times and dogs 24 times in the King James Bible, 39 mentions in all. Almost all of them are unflattering: dogs in the Bible are scavengers and a common insult, not pets.
Why are there no cats in the Bible?
Nobody knows for sure. Domestic cats were common in Egypt, and some readers suggest that their link with Egyptian religion kept them out of Hebrew writing. Others point out that the Bible simply never needed them: it mentions animals that mattered for farming, sacrifice, and imagery.