John Gill Commentary Proverbs 26:11

"As a dog that returneth to his vomit, [So is] a fool that repeateth his folly." — Proverbs 26:11 (ASV)

As a dog returns to his vomit
Who being sick with what he has eaten, casts it up again, and afterwards returns to it and licks it up;

[so] a fool returns to his folly ,
or "repeats" ^F1 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", (2 Peter 2:22) , where it is quoted and applied.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (hnwv) "qui iterat", Tigurine version, Michaelis; "iterans", Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus; "duplicans", Schultens.