The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus 19:12 Kommentar

“Like an arrow stuck in a dog’s leg are words in the heart of a fool.” The dog is at times explained in a good sense, at times in a bad. The good sense one finds in the Psalter: “They return at evening, hungry as dogs, and roam about the city,” which indicates the doctors of Judaism who hunger for the justice of God’s law. After the evening of Christ’s passion, they went diligently about the city of the church, defending it with the barking of their preaching. We also read in the Gospel that the dogs licked the wounds of Lazarus the beggar. The dog is understood in a negative sense, however, when it indicates the filthiness of sinners, as in this passage: “As the dog returns to its vomit, so the fool repeats his folly.” The arrow sticks in the dog’s thigh when, under the devil’s inspiration, perverse concupiscence lodges in the heart of a sinner. He is rightly called foolish, since like an ox he is led to the slaughter, neither thinking of himself nor keeping himself from ruin and eternal death.