Proverbs 27:22

WEB

Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.

KJV

Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

Commentary

Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle,.... As the manna was, Num 11:8 ; and as wheat beat and bruised in a mortar, or ground in a mill, retains its own nature; so, l et 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, Isa 1:5 . Anaxarchus the philosopher was ordered by the tyrant Nicocreon to be pounded to death in a stone mortar with iron pestles (q), and which he endured with great patience. (q) Laert. in Vit. Anaxarch. l. 9. p. 668.