Proverbs 27:22

22 You can grind a foolish person in a mill. You can grind him as you would grind grain with a tool. But you can't remove his foolishness from 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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

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

Proverbs 27:22 In-Context

20 Death and the Grave are never satisfied. A man's eyes are never satisfied either.

21 Fire tests silver. Heat tests gold. But a man is tested by the praise he receives.

22 You can grind a foolish person in a mill. You can grind him as you would grind grain with a tool. But you can't remove his foolishness from him.

23 Be sure you know how your flocks are doing. Pay careful attention to your herds.

24 Riches don't last forever. And a crown is not secure for all time to come.