Proverbs 27 · Verse 22

Proverbs 27:22

Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
Proverbs 27:22, King James Version

Proverbs 27:22 in other translations

BSBThough you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.
WEBThough you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.
ASVThough thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with bruised grain, Yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
YLTIf thou dost beat the foolish in a mortar, Among washed things--with a pestle, His folly turneth not aside from off him.
DARBYIf thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his folly depart from him.
BBEEven if a foolish man is crushed with a hammer in a vessel among crushed grain, still his foolish ways will not go from him.
WebsterThough thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.

What does Proverbs 27:22 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
22. The obstinate wickedness of such is incurable by the heaviest inflictions.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 22 Though thou shouldest bray a fool - Leaving all other conjectures, of which commentators are full, I would propose, that this is a metaphor taken from pounding metallic ores in very large mortars, such as are still common in the East, in order that, when subjected to the action of the fire, the metal may be the more easily separated from the ore. However you may try, by precept or example, or both, to instruct a stupid man, your labor is lost; his foolishness cannot be separated from him. You may purge metals of all their dross; but you cannot purge the fool of his folly.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
Some are so bad, that even severe methods do not answer the end; what remains but that they should be rejected? The new-creating power of God's grace alone is able to make a change.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Proverbs 27:22 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אִ֥ם'imifH518
תִּכְתּֽוֹשׁ\־tikh.to.osh-you will poundH3806
אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853
הָאֱוִ֨יל\׀ha.'e.Vilthe foolH191
בַּֽמַּכְתֵּ֡שׁba.makh.Teshin <the> mortarH4388
בְּת֣וֹךְbe.Tokhin amongH8432
הָ֭רִיפוֹתHa.ri.fotthe grain<s>H7383
בַּֽעֱלִ֑יba.'e.Liwith the pestleH5940
לֹא\־lo'-notH3808
תָס֥וּרta.Surit will departH5493
מֵ֝עָלָ֗יוme.'a.Lavfrom with <the> himH5921
אִוַּלְתּֽוֹ\׃\ \פ'i.val.Tofoolishness hisH200

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Proverbs 27:22

  • Proverbs 23:35

    They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

  • Jeremiah 5:3

    O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

  • Isaiah 1:5

    Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

  • Revelation 16:10-11

    And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

  • Exodus 14:5

    And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?

  • Exodus 12:30

    And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

  • Jeremiah 44:15-16

    Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.

  • 2 Chronicles 28:22-23

    And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord: this is that king Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

  • Exodus 15:9

    The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
23:35; Ex 12:30; 14:5; 15:9; 2Ch 28:22,23; Isa 1:5; Jer 5:3
Jer 44:15,16; Re 16:10,11

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Proverbs 27:21

    As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.

  • Proverbs 27:22

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

  • Proverbs 27:23

    Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

Read all of Proverbs 27

Proverbs 27:22 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Aunque majes al necio en un mortero entre granos de trigo á pisón majados, no se quitará de él su necedad.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Quand tu broierais le fou dans un mortier, au milieu du grain, avec un pilon, sa folie ne se retirerait pas de lui.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Wenn du den Narren mit der Keule im Mörser zerstießest, mitten unter der Grütze, so würde seine Narrheit doch nicht von ihm weichen.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Si contuderis stultum in pila quasi ptisanas feriente desuper pilo, non auferetur ab eo stultitia ejus.