Proverbs 27:22
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Though you should bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Though you should bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with bruised grain, Yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
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.
Webster's Revision
Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.
World English Bible
Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle among bruised corn, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
Definitions for Proverbs 27:22
Clarke's Proverbs 27:22 Bible Commentary
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.
Barnes's Proverbs 27:22 Bible Commentary
Bray - To pound wheat in a mortar with a pestle, in order to free the wheat from its husks and impurities, is to go through a far more elaborate process than threshing. But the folly of the fool is not thus to be got rid of. It sticks to him to the last; all discipline, teaching, experience seem to be wasted on him.
