Bible Strands
Proverbs 27:22
Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Wisdom teacher addresses a general reader within a sequence of practical maxims that use metallurgical and agricultural imagery to expose hidden human conditions. The instruction sits between a warning about how praise reveals character and a command to monitor one's livestock.
The words — The Hebrew verb תִּכְתּוֹשׁ (tikh.to.osh-) literally means "you will pound," paired with הָאֱוִיל (ha./'e.Vil), meaning "the fool." These terms anchor the metaphor of grinding grain to describe the exhaustive effort applied to a stubborn person.
The thread — This motif of unresponsive correction appears in Proverbs 23:35, Jeremiah 5:3, and Isaiah 1:5, where repeated striking or rebuke fails to produce repentance or awareness. The surrounding context in Proverbs 27:21 and 27:23 continues the pattern of using physical trials to expose hidden conditions.
Why it lands — The text states that even exhaustive physical correction cannot remove a fool's stubborn nature. It demands the reader abandon the illusion that relentless persuasion can force character change, and instead recognize the limits of human effort.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 23:35 “They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I did not know it! When can I wake up to search for another drink?”
- Jeremiah 5:3 O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
- Isaiah 1:5 Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.
- Revelation 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish
- Exodus 12:30 During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead.
- Exodus 14:5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”
- Jeremiah 44:15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women standing by—a great assembly—along with all the people living in the land of Egypt and in Pathros, said to Jeremiah,
- Exodus 15:9 The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’
- 2 Chronicles 28:22 In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.