2 Peter 2:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Peter 2:22
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
to walk (figuratively · verb — perfect active indicative, 3rd person singular
them
αὐτοῖςautois
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine
the
παροιμίας·paroimias
G3942
apparently a state alongside of supposition · noun — genitive singular feminine
true
ἀληθοῦςalēthous
G227
true (as not concealing) · adjective — genitive singular feminine
proverb
παροιμίαparoimía
G3942
apparently a state alongside of supposition
dog
κύωνkuōn
G2965
a dog ("hound") (literally or figuratively) · noun — nominative singular masculine
turned
ἐπιστρέψαςepistrepsas
G1994
to revert (literally · verb — aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine
to
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
own
ἴδιονidion
G2398
pertaining to self · adjective — accusative singular neuter
vomit
ἐξέραμα·exerama
G1829
vomit · noun — accusative singular neuter
again
ἐπιστρέφωepistréphō
G1994
to revert (literally
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
sow
ὗςhus
G5300
a hog ("swine") · noun — nominative singular feminine
washed
λουσαμένηlousamenē
G3068
to bathe (the whole person · verb — aorist middle participle, nominative singular feminine
to
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
wallowing
κυλισμὸνkulismon
G2946
a wallow (the effect of rolling) · noun — accusative singular masculine
mire
βορβόρου.¶borborou
G1004
mud · noun — genitive singular masculine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Peter 2:10–end
The apostle's design being to warn us of, and arm us against, seducers, he now returns to discourse more particularly of them, and give us an account of their character and conduct, which abundantly justifies the righteous Judge of the world in reserving them in an especial manner for the most severe and heavy doom, as Cain is taken under special protection that he might be kept for uncommon vengeance. But why will God thus deal with these false teachers? This he shows in what follows.
I. These walk after the flesh; they follow the devices and desires of their own hearts, they give up themselves to the conduct of their own fleshly mind, refusing to make their reason stoop to divine revelatio…
But--You need not wonder at the event; for dogs and swine they were before, and dogs and swine they will continue. They "scarcely" (Pe2 2:18) have escaped from their filthy folly, when they again are entangled in it. Then they seduce others who have in like manner "for a little time escaped from them that live in error" (Pe2 2:18). Peter often quoted Proverbs in his First Epistle (Pe1 1:7; Pe1 2:17; Pe1 4:8, Pe1 4:18); another proof that both Epistles come from the same writer.
Next: 2 Peter Chapter 3
Adam Clarke on 2 Peter 2:22
According to the true proverb - This seems to be a reference to Pro 26:11 : ככלב שב אל קאו kekeleb shab al keo; as the dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool repeateth his folly. In substance this proverb is found among the rabbins; so Midrash Ruth, in Sohar Chadash, fol. 62: Orphah is returned to her mire, Ruth persevered in spirit; and again, Ibid. fol. 64: "Orphah, which is נפש הבהמית nephesh habbehemith, the bestial soul, is returned to her mire."
The Greeks have something like it; so Arrian, Dissert. Epict. l. iv. c. 11, says: Απελθε και χοιρῳ διαλεγου, ἱν' εν βορβορῳ μη κυλιηται, "Go and reason with the swine, lest he be rolled in the mire." This is called a true proverb: for it is…
Repentance consists in no longer doing the same things, for he who reverts to the same sins is like a dog returning to his vomit.
But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and a pig, having washed, to her rolling in the mud. For since a dog returns to its own vomit is more abominable. For what nature had hated, and thus had compelled it to reject, this again having in delight, and as if eating those things that corrupt, and as if ejected through a miscarriage of nature, is more abominable. And the pig again seeking to roll in the mud, if it does this, will appear dirtier than the previous filth.
For the truth of the proverb happened to them: The dog returns to its vomit, etc. He says this is a true proverb because he takes testimony from the Proverbs of Solomon, which is placed there with explanation: As a dog, he says, which returns to its vomit, so is a fool who repeats his foolishness (Prov. XXVI). And he added from his own: And the sow that was washed returns to wallowing in the mire. Therefore, when a dog vomits, it certainly expels the food that weighed down its chest. But when it returns to the vomit, it is again burdened by what it had been relieved of. And those who lament their sins certainly confess and cast away the evil which had satiated them wrongly and weighed down their innermost thoughts; when they repeat it after confession, they take it up again. But the sow, when washed in the mire, is rendered filthier. And he who laments his sins but does not forsake them subjects himself to greater punishment because he scorns the very pardon which he could have obtained by weeping, and he wallows in muddy water as it were, because by his tears he withdraws the cleanliness of life, and before the eyes of God even those very tears become filthy.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Apostasy · Guilt and punishment of — Guilt and punishment of
Apostates · Guilt and punishment of — Guilt and punishment of
Doctrines · 13:9; — 13:9;
Dog (Sodomite?) · .Returns to eat his own vomit — .Returns to eat his own vomit
Dog, The · Described as: Unclean — Described as: Unclean
Swine · General references — General references
Wicked (People) · .Dogs — .Dogs
Wicked, The, Are Compared To · Dogs — Dogs
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on 2 Peter 2:22
But it is happened unto them, according to the true proverb,.... Which is true, both in fact and in the application of it, and which lies in the Scriptures of truth, at least the first part of it, Proverbs 26:11.
The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire; which expresses the filthy nature of sin, signified by vomit, mire, and dirt, than which nothing is more abominable and defiling; and also the just characters of these apostates, who are filly compared to dogs and swine and likewise their irreclaimable and irrecoverable state and condition, it being impossible they should be otherwise, unless their natures were changed and altered. I…
2 Peter 2:20-22
20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
20. Nam si ii qui sufugerant ab inquinamentis mundi per cognitionem Domini et Servatoris Jesu Christi, rursum iisdem impliciti superantur, facta sunt illis postrema pejora prioribus.
21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
21. Melius enim ipsis esset non cognovisse viam justitiae, qum ubi cognoverunt converti ab eo, quod illis…
“A dog returns to its vomit”: Dogs were not seen as friendly family pets but as wild and filthy beasts. • “A washed pig returns to the mud”: This proverb might go back to a popular book of sayings called Ahiqar from around 500 BC, which reads, “My son, you have been to me like the pig who went into the hot bath with people of quality, and when it came out of the hot bath, it saw a filthy hole and went down and wallowed in it” (Ahiqar 8:18).