Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returneth to his vomit, [so] a fool returneth to his folly.
11. So a fool returneth to ] Rather, So is a fool that repeateth, R.V.; iterat, Vulg. The Heb. word is not the same as in the first clause of the verse. Comp. on the proverb 2Pe 2:22.
Pro 26:13-16. Another small group of four proverbs, of which the “sluggard” is the subject.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Pro 26:11
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
The accustomed course resumed
Dost thou ever raise thy little dam across the streamlet, and think to dry the bed below? Hast thou accomplished thy work, and stood watching awhile thy success? Hast thou seen the water above deepen and widen, and gather strength, and at length, impatient of restraint, push through thy yielding barrier, and resume its accustomed course? But couldst thou have turned the stream into another channel thou hadst triumphed, and the former bed had been left dry. So thou hast attempted, perhaps, to confine thy sinful will by the barrier of good resolutions. Thou hast seemed for awhile to gain thy point, and sin was at a stand. Alas! thou hast found that it but gained force by restraint; ere awhile the inclination has burst through all thy well-formed resolves, and hath rushed more impetuously than ever to the forbidden object. No; the will and affections must be turned into another course–towards God and heaven, and things spiritual; and then shall they cease to flow through the tempting vanities of this evil world. This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16.) (H. G. Salter.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. As a dog returneth to his vomit] 2Pe 2:22.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As a dog returneth to his vomit, to lick up that which he had lately vomited, forgetting how burdensome and vexatious it was to him,
so a fool returneth to his folly; such like is the impudence and madness of sinners, who having smarted for their sins, and been forced to forsake them far a time, do afterwards return to the commission of them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. returneth . . . follyThoughdisgusting to others, the fool delights in his folly.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As a dog returneth to his vomit,…. Who being sick with what he has eaten, casts it up again, and afterwards returns unto it and licks it up;
[so] a fool returneth to his folly, or “repeats” a it, time after time, many times, as Ben Melech; or a wicked man turns to his wickedness, who, having had some qualms upon his conscience for sin, for a while forsakes it; but that fit being over, and he forgetting all his former horror and uneasiness, returns to his old course of life: a wicked man is here compared to a dog, as he is elsewhere for his impudence and voraciousness in sinning; and the filthiness of sin is expressed by the vomit of a dog, than which nothing is more nauseous and loathsome; and the apostasy of the sinner, from an external course of righteousness into open profaneness is signified by the return of this creature to it. This is said to be a “true proverb”, 2Pe 2:22, where it is quoted and applied.
a “qui iterat”, Tigurine version, Michaelis; “iterans”, Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus; “duplicans”, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The series of proverbs regarding fools is continued:
Like a dog which returneth to his vomit,
Is a fool who cometh again with his folly.
is like , particip.; only if the punctuation were , ought “which returneth to his vomit” to be taken as a relative clause ( vid., under Psa 38:14). Regarding as designating the terminus quo with verbs of motions, vid., Khler under Mal. 3:24. On = , cf. Pro 23:8. Luther rightly; as a dog devours again his vomit. The lxx translate: ; the reference in 2Pe 2:22: , is thus not from the lxx; the Venet. is not connected with this N.T. citation, but with the lxx, if its accordance with it is not merely accidental. To devour again its vomit is common with the dog.
(Note: Vid., Schulze’s Die bibl. Sprichwrter der deutschen Sprache, p. 71f.)
Even so, it is the manner of fools to return again in word and in deed to their past folly ( vid., regarding with of the object. Pro 17:9); as an Aram. popular saying has it: the fool always falls back upon his foolish conduct.
(Note: Vid., Wahl’s Das Sprichwort der heb.-aram. Literatur, p. 147; Duke’s Rabbin. Blumenlese, p. 9.)
He must needs do so, for folly has become to him a second nature; but this “must” ceases when once a divine light shines forth upon him. The lxx has after Pro 26:11 a distich which is literally the same as Sir. 4:21.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
See here, 1. What an abominable thing sin is, and how hateful sometimes it is made to appear, even to the sinner himself. When his conscience is convinced, or he feels smart from his sin, he is sick of it, and vomits it up; he seems then to detest it and to be willing to part with it. It is in itself, and, first or last, will be to the sinner, more loathsome than the vomit of a dog, Ps. xxxvi. 2. 2. How apt sinners are to relapse into it notwithstanding. As the dog, after he has gained ease by vomiting that which burdened his stomach, yet goes and licks it up again, so sinners, who have been convinced only and not converted, return to sin again, forgetting how sick it made them. The apostle (2 Pet. ii. 22) applies this proverb to those that have known the way of righteousness but are turned from it; but God will spue them out of his mouth, Rev. iii. 16.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(11) So a fool returneth to his folly.Though he knows it to be folly, and ruinous to him: but vice has become to him a second nature, and he cannot, even if he would, escape from it. This is especially true of those who have given way to drink or impurity of life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. As a dog returneth Compare 2Pe 2:22.
Returneth to his folly Repeats it, or turns back unto it. Compare Mat 12:45; Joh 5:14; Heb 6:4-8.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, [so] a fool returneth to his folly.
Ver. 11. As a dog returneth to his vomit. ] A homely comparison, able to make a true Christian ready to lay up all, but good enough for the odious apostate to whom it is applied. Such a one was Judas, Julian, Ecebolius, Baldvinus, Islebius, Agricola, that first Antinomian, – who did many times promise amendment, and yet afterwards fell to his error again; – after that he condemned his error, and recanted it in a public auditory, and printed his revocation; yet when Luther was dead, he relapsed into that error, so hard a thing is it to get poison out when once swallowed down. Harding, Bishop Jewel’s antagonist, was in King Edward’s days a thundering preacher against Popery, wishing he could cry out against it as loud as the bells of Oseney, so that by his preaching many were confirmed in the truth. All which to be so they can testify that heard him and be yet alive, saith Mr Foxe. See an excellent letter of the Lady Jane Grey’s to him while she was prisoner in the Tower, “Acts and Monuments,” fol. 1291, wherein she wills him to remember the horrible history of Julian of old, and the lamentable case of Spira a late, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
As a dog, &c. Quoted in 2Pe 2:22.
returneth = repeateth. Illustrations: Pharaoh (Exo 9:27-34); Ahab (1Ki 21:27; 1Ki 22:6-8); Herod (Mar 6:20-27).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a dog: Exo 8:15, Mat 12:45, 2Pe 2:22
returneth to his folly: Heb. iterateth his folly
Reciprocal: Deu 23:18 – dog Jdg 16:4 – he loved Pro 23:35 – I will Ecc 7:25 – know Isa 28:8 – General Jer 34:11 – General Mat 7:6 – that Phi 3:2 – of dogs
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A wise man does not repeat his folly, but a fool does. Similarly a dog returns to eat its vomit, but a man does not. A fool behaves like a dog rather than like a man when he repeats his folly (cf. 2Pe 2:22).