And he answered: it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Jesus' second response uses the children-and-dogs metaphor: the bread intended for the children of Israel is not to be thrown to the dogs. The dogs in the ancient Jewish idiom for Gentiles was a term of contempt; Jesus uses the diminutive (little dogs, household pets) which softens the contrast. The statement presents the woman with the full force of the ethnic boundary she is crossing.

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