Proverbs 27:22

22 Though thou poundedest a fool in a mortar, as with a pestle smiting above dried barley (like pounding dried barley with a pestle), his folly shall not be done away 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Proverbs 27:22 In-Context

20 Hell and perdition shall not be filled; so and the eyes of men be not able to be (ful)filled. (Sheol, or the land of the dead, and perdition/Hell and perdition shall never be filled full; and the eyes, or the appetites, of people shall never be fulfilled, or satisfied.)

21 As silver is proved in a welling place, and gold is proved in a furnace; so a man is proved by the mouth of his praisers (so a person is proved, or assayed, by the words of his praisers).

22 Though thou poundedest a fool in a mortar, as with a pestle smiting above dried barley (like pounding dried barley with a pestle), his folly shall not be done away from him.

23 Know thou diligently the cheer of thy beast; and behold thou thy flocks. (Diligently know the faces of thy beasts; and keep watch thou over thy flocks.)

24 For thou shalt not have power continually; but a crown shall be given to thee in generation and into generation. (For thou shalt not have wealth forever; nor shall a crown endure for generations and generations.)