Key Verse Spotlight
Proverbs 27:22 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: King James Version
" Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart "
Proverbs 27:22
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
21 As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.
22 Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart
23 Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
24 For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?
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Solomon had said before that the foolishness bound up in a child’s heart may be driven out by the rod of correction (Proverbs 22:15), because then the mind can still be shaped and bad habits have not yet taken root. Here he shows that if this work is not done then, it becomes almost impossible later. If the disease is long-lasting, there is a real danger that it will become beyond cure. Can the Ethiopian change his skin?
Notice two things here. Some people are so bad that firmer and more severe methods must be used after gentle means have failed. They must be beaten in a mortar, so to speak. God will deal with them that way through his judgments, and rulers must sometimes deal with them that way through the strictness of the law. Force must be used with those who will not be guided by reason, love, or even their own best interest.
Others are so stubbornly evil that even those harsh methods do not reach their goal. Their foolishness will not leave them, because their hearts are fully set on doing evil. They are often under the rod and still not humbled, in the furnace and still not purified. Like Ahaz, king of Judah, who kept sinning more and more (2 Chronicles 28:22), they only grow worse. What is left, then, but to treat them as rejected silver?
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From This Chapter
Proverbs 27:1
"Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."
Proverbs 27:2
"Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips."
Proverbs 27:3
"A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both."
Proverbs 27:4
"Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?"
Proverbs 27:5
"Open rebuke is better than secret love."
Proverbs 27:6
"Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
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