Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 59:6

"They return at evening, they howl like a dog, And go round about the city." — Psalms 59:6 (ASV)

A dog. —This comparison to the gaunt, half-starved wild dogs of an Eastern town has met us before (Psalms 22:16). The verbs should be rendered as futures here and in Psalm 59:15.

Make a noise. —Better, howl. (See Note, Psalms 55:7.) An English traveller has described the noise made by the dogs of Constantinople: “The noise I heard then I shall never forget. The whole city rang with one vast riot. Down below me at Tophane; over about Stamboul; far away at Scutari; the whole 60,000 dogs that are said to overrun Constantinople appeared engaged in the most active extermination of each other without a moment’s cessation. The yelping, howling, barking, growling, and snarling were all merged into one uniform and continuous, even sound” (Albert Smith, A Month at Constantinople, quoted from Spurgeon’s Treasury of David).