Bray

To bray, in scriptural usage, is to pound or crush — the action of a pestle in a mortar. The verb appears in a proverb about the obstinacy of folly.

To Pound in a Mortar

The single instance is a proverb about a fool: "Though you should bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with bruised grain, Yet his foolishness will not depart from him" (Prov 27:22). The picture is the household crushing-vessel — a mortar with its pestle, used to pound grain. The fool is set inside the mortar alongside the already-bruised grain, and the implied repeated pestle-blows do their crushing work; yet the fool's folly will not be pounded out of him. Brayed grain yields meal, but a brayed fool is still a fool.