As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool that repeats a folly (Prov. 26:11).
The Rabbis point out that, "the food that is ejected from the stomach is indigestible; but a dog, being senseless, will eat it again and suffer for it. In like manner a fool repeats his mistakes although they had previously harmed him."
The fool never learns. He goes back to the same sinful and harmful patterns and repeats them over and over. He cares not for those he hurts, much less the pain he causes himself. Lawson writes that repeating sinners are fools and dogs. All who sin in the same way over and over are like the unclean dog. Sometimes their awakened conscience causes them to temporarily stop sinning but in time their evilness causes them to break down and go back to eating of the same filth. Lawson adds, the sight of a dog returning to his vomit is loathsome; but it is much more detestable for sinners to return to their former wickedness. Nothing is more dishonoring to God; nothing is more hurtful to the souls of men, and especially to the sinner who does not learn the first time!
Waltke points out that the fool in his incorrigibility is like the dog's repulsive nature to return to its own vomit. The dog smells his vomit, licks it, and then eats it. The dog is pictured in Scripture in contempt in that they ate garbage, carcasses, corpses, and licked the blood of the dead, and were scavengers. They were seen as unclean and as detestable. They appear as figures for evildoers (2 Sam. 16:9).
The Rabbis point out that, "the food that is ejected from the stomach is indigestible; but a dog, being senseless, will eat it again and suffer for it. In like manner a fool repeats his mistakes although they had previously harmed him."
The fool never learns. He goes back to the same sinful and harmful patterns and repeats them over and over. He cares not for those he hurts, much less the pain he causes himself. Lawson writes that repeating sinners are fools and dogs. All who sin in the same way over and over are like the unclean dog. Sometimes their awakened conscience causes them to temporarily stop sinning but in time their evilness causes them to break down and go back to eating of the same filth. Lawson adds, the sight of a dog returning to his vomit is loathsome; but it is much more detestable for sinners to return to their former wickedness. Nothing is more dishonoring to God; nothing is more hurtful to the souls of men, and especially to the sinner who does not learn the first time!
Waltke points out that the fool in his incorrigibility is like the dog's repulsive nature to return to its own vomit. The dog smells his vomit, licks it, and then eats it. The dog is pictured in Scripture in contempt in that they ate garbage, carcasses, corpses, and licked the blood of the dead, and were scavengers. They were seen as unclean and as detestable. They appear as figures for evildoers (2 Sam. 16:9).
