Proverbs 27:22

22 You can crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle, along with the grain being crushed; yet his foolishness will not leave him.

Proverbs 27:22 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 27:22

Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat
with a pestle
As the manna was, ( Numbers 11:8 ) ; and as wheat beat and bruised in a mortar, or ground in a mill, retains its own nature; so, let a wicked man be used ever so roughly or severely, by words, admonitions, reproofs, and counsels; or by deeds, by corrections and punishment, by hard words or blows, whether publicly or privately; in the midst of the congregation, as the Targum and Syriac version; or of the sanhedrim and council, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; [yet] will not his foolishness depart from him;
his inbred depravity and natural malignity and folly will not remove, nor will he leave his course of sinning he has been accustomed to; he is stricken in vain, he will revolt more and more, ( Isaiah 1:5 ) ( Jeremiah 5:3 ) ( 13:23 ) . Anaxarchus the philosopher was ordered by the tyrant Nicocreon to be pounded to death in a stone mortar with iron pestles ^F17, and which he endured with great patience.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 Laert. in Vit. Anaxarch. l. 9. p. 668.

Proverbs 27:22 In-Context

20 Sh'ol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and human eyes are never satisfied.

21 The crucible [tests] silver, and the furnace [tests] gold, but a person [is tested] by [his reaction to] praise.

22 You can crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle, along with the grain being crushed; yet his foolishness will not leave him.

23 Take care to know the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds.

24 For wealth doesn't last forever, neither does a crown through all generations.