Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, (yet) will not his foolishness depart from him - literally, 'from upon him;' like the husk upon a grain of wheat which is hard to remove, so a fool's folly which cleaves closely to him by nature and long habit (Jeremiah 13:23). The bruising in the mortar of trial fails to reform him. So Ahaz, 2 Chronicles 28:22; Judah, Isaiah 1:5-6; Isaiah 9:13. The patience of the corrector is only tried, without good to the corrected.