Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 15:27

"But she said, Yea, Lord: for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters` table." — Matthew 15:27 (ASV)

It was humbly spoken, “Truth, Lord.” It was bravely spoken, for she found food for faith in the hard crusts of our Lord’s language. Our Lord had used a word that should be rendered “little dogs,” and she seized upon it.

Little dogs become the playmates of the children. They lie under the table and pick up the fragments that fall to the ground from the table of their little masters. The householder takes the little dog under his care enough to allow him to be under the table.

If, Gentile dog as she was, she might not be shepherded as one of the flock, she would be content to be tolerated as one of the household, as a little dog. For then she would be allowed the crumbs that fall from the children’s bread, from the table of her little masters. Great as was the blessing that she sought, it was only a crumb compared to the Lord’s bounty and to Israel’s portion, and therefore she begged to have it, dog as she acknowledged herself to be.

Let us accept the worst character that the Scripture gives us and still find in it an argument for hope.

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

"I may be only a dog, and these Jews around you are your children, but I have got in among them, and I am looking for a crumb or two as it falls from their table." This was great faith on her part, and it was speedily rewarded.

Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

When the children drop the crumbs, then the little dogs which have been petted by the children feed on the crumbs which fall, not from the master's table, but from their masters' table—that is, from the table of the children.

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

It was good for her that the Master had used that diminutive form of the word, because the bigger dogs in the East were not permitted in the house, while the little dogs were admitted to play with the children.

She seemed to snatch at that idea as she exclaimed, "Truth, Lord: yet the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." It was as though the greatest possible benefit to her was but a crumb to him, and but a crumb compared with the bread he was placing on the table of Israel. The greater blessing he was giving to the children might prompt him to give a crumb to her.