Proverbs 27:3

A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but vexation ¹  by a fool is more burdensome ²  than the two of them.

Ge 34:25,26; Ge 49:7; 1Sa 22:18,19; Es 3:5,6; Pr 17:12; Da 3:19; 1Jo 3:12

¹ tn The subject matter is the vexation produced by a fool. The term כַּעַס (ca’as) means “vexation” (ASV); provocation” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); “anger” (KJV “wrath”) and usually refers to undeserved treatment. Cf. NLT “the resentment caused by a fool.”

sn The same noun is used in 1 Sam 1:6, 16 for the “provocation” given to Hannah by Peninnah for being barren.

² sn The contrast is made between dealing with the vexation of a fool and physical labor (moving stones and sand). More tiring is the vexation of a fool, for the mental and emotional effort it takes to deal with it is more draining than physical labor. It is, in the sense of this passage, almost unbearable.