Proverbs 4:16

16 Evil people are restless unless they're making trouble; They can't get a good night's sleep unless they've made life miserable for somebody.

Proverbs 4:16 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 4:16

For they sleep not, except they have done mischief
Or they cannot sleep, as Jarchi and Gersom interpret it. Oftentimes they cannot sleep on their beds for devising mischief, their thoughts are so intensely set on contriving wicked schemes; and when they have so done, they cannot sleep until they have executed them; they are continually restless and uneasy day and night, like the troubled sea, constantly casting up mire and dirt. Who would keep such company as these? and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause [some] to fall;
into the snares and traps they lay for them, or into sin and calamity by it; the former of which they endeavour by all means to draw men into, and the latter is the unavoidable consequence of it. They imitate their father the devil, both delight in sin, and in the ruin of their fellow creatures; it is a sport to thereto do mischief, and they have no pleasure without it; see ( Proverbs 11:23 ) . What company are such!

Proverbs 4:16 In-Context

14 Don't take Wicked Bypass; don't so much as set foot on that road.
15 Stay clear of it; give it a wide berth. Make a detour and be on your way.
16 Evil people are restless unless they're making trouble; They can't get a good night's sleep unless they've made life miserable for somebody.
17 Perversity is their food and drink, violence their drug of choice.
18 The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.