Though you pound the fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, His foolishness still will not leave him.
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.
- NKJV Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, Yet his foolishness will not depart from him.
- NLT You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Folly is so deeply rooted that even harsh treatment cannot remove it from a fool. It soberly warns that mere punishment cannot change a hardened heart.
Overview
The drastic image of grinding a fool in a mortar shows that external force alone cannot extract ingrained foolishness from one who refuses correction. The problem lies in a stubborn heart, not a lack of pressure. Real transformation requires a new heart, which God promises to give through the gospel and the work of His Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jer 5:3O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
- Prov 23:35“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”
- Isa 1:5Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Rev 16:10–11The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain,
- Jer 44:15–16Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
- Exod 14:5The king of Egypt was told that the people had fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was changed towards the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
- Exod 12:30Pharaoh 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.
- 2 Chr 28:22–23In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz.
- Exod 15:9The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 27:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.