Proverbs 4:16

16 Wicked people cannot sleep unless they do wrong, and they are robbed of their sleep unless they make someone stumble.

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 Do not stray onto the path of wicked people. Do not walk in the way of evil people.
15 Avoid it. Do not walk near it. Turn away from it, and keep on walking.
16 Wicked people cannot sleep unless they do wrong, and they are robbed of their sleep unless they make someone stumble.
17 They eat food obtained through wrongdoing and drink wine obtained through violence.
18 But the path of righteous people is like the light of dawn that becomes brighter and brighter until it reaches midday.
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