SEV Biblia, Chapter 27:22
¶ Aunque majes al loco en un mortero entre granos de trigo a pisón majados, no se quitará de él su locura.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Proverbs 27:22
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 labour 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 22. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle , etc.] As the manna was, ( Numbers 11:8); and as wheat beat and bruised in a mortar, or ground in a mill, retains its own nature; so, let a wicked man be used ever so roughly or severely, by words, admonitions, reproofs, and counsels; or by deeds, by corrections and punishment, by hard words or blows, whether publicly or privately; in the midst of the congregation, as the Targum and Syriac version; or of the sanhedrim and council, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; [yet] will not his foolishness depart from him ; his inbred depravity and natural malignity and folly will not remove, nor will he leave his course of sinning he has been accustomed to; he is stricken in vain, he will revolt more and more, ( Isaiah 1:5 Jeremiah 5:3 13:23). Anaxarchus the philosopher was ordered by the tyrant Nicocreon to be pounded to death in a stone mortar with iron pestles f763 , and which he endured with great patience.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 22 - 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.
Original Hebrew
אם 518 תכתושׁ 3806 את 853 האויל 191 במכתשׁ 4388 בתוך 8432 הריפות 7383 בעלי 5940 לא 3808 תסור 5493 מעליו 5921 אולתו׃ 200
