As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
The image is of disgusting return, with a senseless person circling back to his own folly just as a dog circles back to what it has thrown up. It marks that return as the defining habit of folly, not a single lapse but a repeated resumption of the same wrong course. It fits the one who, after warning and reproof, takes up sinful conduct again as before. Mere outward acceptance of correction does not end the cycle when there is no inward repentance, so the pattern continues unchanged.
The image is of disgusting return, with a senseless person circling back to his own folly just as a dog circles back to what it has thrown up. It marks that return as the defining habit of folly, not a single lapse but a repeated resumption of the same wrong course. It fits the one who, after warning and reproof, takes up sinful conduct again as before. Mere outward acceptance of correction does not end the cycle when there is no inward repentance, so the pattern continues unchanged.