Proverbs Chapter 27 verse 22 Holy Bible
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with bruised grain, Yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
read chapter 27 in ASV
Even if a foolish man is crushed with a hammer in a vessel among crushed grain, still his foolish ways will not go from him.
read chapter 27 in BBE
If thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his folly depart from him.
read chapter 27 in DARBY
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
read chapter 27 in KJV
read chapter 27 in WBT
Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, Yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.
read chapter 27 in WEB
If thou dost beat the foolish in a mortar, Among washed things -- with a pestle, His folly turneth not aside from off him.
read chapter 27 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 22. - Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle. "To bray" is to pound or beat small. "Wheat," רִיפות, riphoth (only in 2 Samuel 17:19), "bruised corn." Vulgate, In pila quasi ptisanas (barley groats) feriente; Aquila and Theodotion, Ἐν μέσῳ ἐμπτισσομένων "In the midst of grains of corn being pounded." The LXX., reading, differently, has, "Though thou scourge a fool, disgracing him (ἐν μεσῳ συνεδρίου) in the midst of the congregation." Of course, the process of separating the husks from the corn by the use of pestle and mortar is much more delicate and careful than threshing in the usual clumsy way; hence is expressed the idea that the most elaborate pains are wasted on the incorrigible fool (see on Proverbs 1:20). His foolishness will not depart from him. An obstinate, self-willed, unprincipled man cannot be reformed by any means; his folly has become a second nature, and is not to be eliminated by any teaching, discipline, or severity. There is, too, a judicial blindness, when, after repeated warnings wilfully rejected and scorned, the sinner is left to himself, given over to a reprobate mind "Whoso teacheth a fool," Siracides pronounces, "is as one that glueth a potsherd together, and as he that waketh one from a sound sleep" (Ecclus. 22:7). Again, "The inner parts of a fool are like a broken vessel, and he will hold no knowledge as long as he liveth" (Ecclus. 21:14). In Turkey, we are told, great criminals were beaten to pieces in huge mortars of iron, in which they usually pounded rice. "You cannot straighten a dog's tail, try as you may," says a Telugu maxim (Lane). There is a saying of Schiller's which is quite proverbial, "Heaven and earth fight in vain against a dunce." Horace, 'Epist.,' 1:10, 24 - "Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret." Juvenal, 'Sat.,' 13:239 - "Tamen ad mores natura recurritDamnatos, fixa et mutari nescia."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(22) Though thou shouldest bray (i.e., pound) a fool (a self-willed, headstrong person) in a mortar among wheat with a pestle.--This would separate completely the husks from the wheat; but obstinacy has become a part of such a man's nature, and cannot be got rid of even by such violent measures.
