What Does 2 Peter 2:22 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse locates the danger after cleansing: what is washed can still turn back toward what it once cast out.
THE MEANING
A washed surface does not mean the old pull is gone. You can return to what once left you sick, and that return can reveal what the washing never changed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that a clean beginning proves the old pull is gone; washing alone does not guarantee a changed direction.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστρέψας
epistrepsas
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
To turn or turn around.
“turned” in this verse is epistrepsas. The Greek word describes turning back toward something, and the image names the destination as the dog’s own vomit. The root makes return a movement with an object; the verse’s force lies in where the turn leads.
ALSO GROWS
epistrophē: turning, return, conversion
ἐπιστροφή
This noun shows the same root can describe a turning; the destination gives that turning its direction.
apostrephō: turn away
ἀποστρέφω
This compound shows that the same turning can move away from something, making the direction of the turn matter.
λουσαμένη
lousamenē
GROWS FROM
λούω
louō
To bathe or wash the body.
The sow’s washing is real within the image, yet the next movement is toward the mire. The verse places bodily cleansing beside an unchanged return, showing that being washed does not by itself end the pull toward filth.
ALSO GROWS
loutron: bath, washing
λουτρόν
This noun shares the bathing root; it highlights the actual wash that precedes the sow’s return to the mire.
apolouō: wash away
ἀπολούω
This compound makes removal explicit; the image leaves a sharp distinction between washing something off and turning away from the mire.
THE PATTERN
A cleansing that leaves the underlying direction untouched can end in a return to what defiles.
Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.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.THE THREAD
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.The same Greek root, στρέφω (strephō, turn), shapes both verses: here the dog turns back to its vomit, while Luke describes many turning to the Lord. The shared motion becomes clear through its destination.
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